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I did some quick math on GDP numbers by country, just making the very rough (and I'm sure incorrect) assumption that Uber will take a similar percent of each co

I did some quick math on GDP numbers by country, just making the very rough (and I'm sure incorrect) assumption that Uber will take a similar percent of each countries total spending. I originally wanted to argue against you, by saying that Asia has some very large and fast growing non-China/Japan countries... but I'm not sure the data shows that. US+EU is $35T total GDP. The largest non-China/Japan Asian economies, India+Indonesia+South Korea+Taiwan+Thailand+Hong Kong+Phillipines+Malaysia is ~$7T[1]. Is it worth all the risk and effort to add only 20% of your potential business? Maybe, and those countries do have higher GDP growth rates[2]. But given the small market sizes, difference in laws, and substantial local competitors (especially Grab), it doesn't seem like being in Asia should increase Uber's worth by a large multiple, relative to Lyft. That said, if being in Asia is responsible for 20% of Uber's valuation, that is still a gigantic $14B, larger than many fortune 500 companies. [1]-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_...

edwinnathaniel 10y ago
There are probably a few large markets in Asia: China, India, and Indonesia. The rest don't have as many human beings as these 3 countries. Both Go-Jek (Indonesia) and Grab have raised huge capital in the last 5 years or so. Go-Jek seems to be the leader in Indonesia as they've also expanded their capability to food delivery, document delivery, payment gateway, etc (they're becoming more like WeChat minus the chatting/social network aspect) I have my doubt that Uber in Indonesian will provide significant return to HQ. Uber currently is in 3rd place after Go-Jek and Grab.
shalmanese 10y ago
Just going by GDP is misleading. Asia has far higher population densities and lower rates of personal car ownership. As those countries grow, there's a real chance for a substantial part of the new middle class to only have ever experienced ride sharing coupled with public transit as opposed to buying their own vehicle.

edwinnathaniel 10y ago

There are probably a few large markets in Asia: China, India, and Indonesia. The rest don't have as many human beings as these 3 countries. Both Go-Jek (Indonesia) and Grab have raised huge capital in the last 5 years or so. Go-Jek seems to be the leader in Indonesia as they've also expanded their capability to food delivery, document delivery, payment gateway, etc (they're becoming more like WeChat minus the chatting/social network aspect) I have my doubt that Uber in Indonesian will provide significant return to HQ. Uber currently is in 3rd place after Go-Jek and Grab.

shalmanese 10y ago

Just going by GDP is misleading. Asia has far higher population densities and lower rates of personal car ownership. As those countries grow, there's a real chance for a substantial part of the new middle class to only have ever experienced ride sharing coupled with public transit as opposed to buying their own vehicle.