The half-year profit announcement from Cabcharge is proving to be a living exercise in old business model fighting hard to re-assert itself against new arrivals and new payment systems. The taxi network had to report an after-tax loss of A$5.1 million, and had $9 million less cash on the bank than at the start of the year. But the company is putting on a brave front, pointing out that it has greatly improved its smartphone app, and introduced handheld payment devices. Thus a near-monopoly position in the Australian taxi payment market as a result of its in-taxi payment terminals is being demolished, with numerous alternative payment solutions that have emerged in recent years, supported by the growth in smartphones, "which arguably render the Cabcharge system near obsolete," according to Morningstar.  "We expect Cabcharge to continue losing market share to relatively new competitors in the Australian taxi industry, such as payment solutions providers, including local provider goCatch, and taxi platforms, such as Uber," Morningstar analyst Gareth James said. Australian state governments' decision to reduce the historical ten per cent Cabcharge payments processing fee to five per cent has created additional revenue pressure for the business model."