3 ms·

The fact they're losing money like this doesn't really mean anything because Uber isn't a normal business. It's not some little mom & pop outfit that has bills

The fact they're losing money like this doesn't really mean anything because Uber isn't a normal business. It's not some little mom & pop outfit that has bills to pay. This is a company whose investors (e.g. the Saudis) have so much cash a billion here and a billion there barely matters. It's a place for absurdly wealthy people to park vast sums of cash on the bet that Uber will continue to gobble up marketshare from taxi companies, etc., until they're in a position to disrupt transit in general (and ride sharing services, too) with self-driving cars and who knows what else they'll come up with. I don't think comparisons with Twitter are all that apt. People need to go from point A to B. No one needs to tweet. The network effect of social networks is valuable but I think that value pales in comparison to transportation. The way we pay backs up this premise: we pay for Twitter and Facebook with our eyeballs and our data, but we pay for Uber with our credit cards.

mrep 9y ago
> until they're in a position to disrupt transit in general (and ride sharing services, too) with self-driving cars and who knows what else they'll come up with. Considering they have a lawsuit against their self driving program [1], I wouldn't put so much faith on that [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/uber-fires-self-driving-car-head-google-waymo-trade-secrets https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/uber-fire...
BinaryIdiot 9y ago
> The fact they're losing money like this doesn't really mean anything because Uber isn't a normal business. Yeah, Uber is different because of its insane amount of investor money but losing money is still losing money; it can't go on forever. So saying it doesn't mean anything is a bit shortsighted in my opinion. > It's a place for absurdly wealthy people to park vast sums of cash on the bet that Uber will continue to gobble up marketshare from taxi companies, etc., until they're in a position to disrupt transit in general (and ride sharing services, too) with self-driving cars and who knows what else they'll come up with. Seems like an extremely risky bet to me. I'm unconvinced they'll be able to make any decent amounts of money in this service especially considering the majority of auto manufacturers are working on similar capabilities; they'll be able to drive the price down far below Uber ever could unless they start manufacturing their own vehicles.
- beager 9y ago
  With respect to the second point about hugely wealthy foreign investors parking cash in Uber-like companies, consider that the risk profile of a highly visible company like Uber with very high-volume cash flow, unprofitable though they may be, can often be much lower than the risk profile of keeping the money in the source nation's domestic vehicles. See also: foreign money parked in absurd condos in NYC.
kgwgk 9y ago
s/park/burn/

mrep 9y ago

> until they're in a position to disrupt transit in general (and ride sharing services, too) with self-driving cars and who knows what else they'll come up with. Considering they have a lawsuit against their self driving program [1], I wouldn't put so much faith on that [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/uber-fires-self-driving-car-head-google-waymo-trade-secrets https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/uber-fire...

BinaryIdiot 9y ago

> The fact they're losing money like this doesn't really mean anything because Uber isn't a normal business. Yeah, Uber is different because of its insane amount of investor money but losing money is still losing money; it can't go on forever. So saying it doesn't mean anything is a bit shortsighted in my opinion. > It's a place for absurdly wealthy people to park vast sums of cash on the bet that Uber will continue to gobble up marketshare from taxi companies, etc., until they're in a position to disrupt transit in general (and ride sharing services, too) with self-driving cars and who knows what else they'll come up with. Seems like an extremely risky bet to me. I'm unconvinced they'll be able to make any decent amounts of money in this service especially considering the majority of auto manufacturers are working on similar capabilities; they'll be able to drive the price down far below Uber ever could unless they start manufacturing their own vehicles.

beager 9y ago
With respect to the second point about hugely wealthy foreign investors parking cash in Uber-like companies, consider that the risk profile of a highly visible company like Uber with very high-volume cash flow, unprofitable though they may be, can often be much lower than the risk profile of keeping the money in the source nation's domestic vehicles. See also: foreign money parked in absurd condos in NYC.

kgwgk 9y ago

s/park/burn/