5 ms·

Honestly if they need to make money, they can lay off a ton of staff, and license their logistics software to a lot of companies. It wouldn't be what their gam

by ProAm 9y ago

Honestly if they need to make money, they can lay off a ton of staff, and license their logistics software to a lot of companies. It wouldn't be what their game plan has been, definitely a severe pivot but they would be a money printing machine for years to come.

djsumdog 9y ago
> they can lay off a ton of staff, and license their logistics software to a lot of companies. I have a feeling this isn't as easy as you think. There are some great talks on Uber's microservice architecture and it's pretty insane. They could create new services, but I have a feeling their existing infrastructure is very custom. They've got over 1,000 microservices and it's actually difficult to get an exact number.
- gaius 9y ago
  Uber's microservice architecture and it's pretty insane Symptomatic of too many engineers and too little leadership
  - bunderbunder 9y ago
    "Too many engineers" is the impression I tend to come away with whenever I attend a tech talk by someone from the more fiscally beleaguered of the tech darlings. The talk is invariably about some really impressive bit of software that appears to have required equally heaping measures of smarts and money to build, and also appears to be a $10 solution to a 10¢ problem.
    - ethbro 9y ago
      Never underestimate the ability of someone with an IQ of 135 to make every problem difficult.
  - endorphone 9y ago
    Yet technology has never been a problem or a limiting factor of Uber. Uber deserves plenty of criticism, yet it seems rich to blame technology when they grew from nothing to enormous with few if any hiccups. It worked. But yeah, extraordinarily few internal projects can be turned into an external project without enormous rework. It's only the myth of middle managers who perceive software as a growing asset who think otherwise.
  - sidlls 9y ago
    That explains most of the engineering culture in the Valley, really. Even the "leadership" is on board with it, because they have their own resume driven development to pursue.
madeofpalk 9y ago
Also they could maybe stop literally giving away free money.
andrewem 9y ago
Their revenues are in the billions per year, and so their investors would be looking for new revenues in the billions. The assumption that there's an untapped multi-billion dollar market for logistics software that they could quickly dominate - quickly enough to avoid running out of money - seems unwarranted.
- bwilliams18 9y ago
  There's an enormous opportunity in UberEATS if they can get the unit economics right. They could also retreat into already profitable markets .
  - rtpg 9y ago
    I've used UberEATS a couple times, but after figuring out that it's basically impossible for delivery people to make much real money off of it I feel really bad. Not sure if the unit economics can ever work out.
- ProAm 9y ago
  Revenues are in the billions, but profits are nil, and if it comes to bankruptcy vs pivot and earn a profit everyone will find it acceptable. Of course they'd want billions, they want an ROI from the unicorn, it might not be there in its current unicorn form.
maxxxxx 9y ago
"license their logistics software to a lot of companies." It's quite tricky to package an internally used system into something that can be sold and used by others. It most likely takes years to get to any significant amount of sales.
- ProAm 9y ago
  Every taxi company on earth would buy this immediately.
  - jdmichal 9y ago
    That is... Overly optimistic at best. You're assuming every taxi company on Earth: * Thinks they have a logistics problem in the first place. * Thinks that software can solve that problem. * Are in the market for software to solve that problem. * Think that Uber's software is the software that would solve that problem the best. That's a hell of a lot of assumptions, each of which is fairly easy to pick apart.
    - ProAm 9y ago
      I politely disagree. Taxi companies hate ride sharing companies. As an industry that refused change for decades saw a software company come in and eat away market share quickly. If Uber were to 'go away' and allow the taxi company to use the ride hailing software they would be all over it. [1][2][3][4] And this is just the taxi industry, there are plenty of industries that would love to use a logistics software to help their business. The only real magic Uber has is this software, the rest is easily replaceable or overhead. [1] https://daymondjohnssuccessformula.com/launch-pad/cab-companies-hate-uber-means/ https://daymondjohnssuccessformula.com/launch-pad/cab-compan... [2]https://www.watchdog.org/california/the-uber-effect-why-cab-companies-hate-ridesharing/article_93880bef-beb1-52d6-8a4a-c4b2269f95c5.html https://www.watchdog.org/california/the-uber-effect-why-cab-... [3] https://www.quora.com/Why-do-taxi-drivers-hate-Uber-if-its-competitive-business https://www.quora.com/Why-do-taxi-drivers-hate-Uber-if-its-c... [4] https://therideshareguy.com/what-taxis-need-to-do-to-survive-uber-and-lyft/ https://therideshareguy.com/what-taxis-need-to-do-to-survive...

by ProAm 9y ago

djsumdog 9y ago

> they can lay off a ton of staff, and license their logistics software to a lot of companies. I have a feeling this isn't as easy as you think. There are some great talks on Uber's microservice architecture and it's pretty insane. They could create new services, but I have a feeling their existing infrastructure is very custom. They've got over 1,000 microservices and it's actually difficult to get an exact number.

gaius 9y ago
Uber's microservice architecture and it's pretty insane Symptomatic of too many engineers and too little leadership
- bunderbunder 9y ago
  "Too many engineers" is the impression I tend to come away with whenever I attend a tech talk by someone from the more fiscally beleaguered of the tech darlings. The talk is invariably about some really impressive bit of software that appears to have required equally heaping measures of smarts and money to build, and also appears to be a $10 solution to a 10¢ problem.
  - ethbro 9y ago
    Never underestimate the ability of someone with an IQ of 135 to make every problem difficult.
- endorphone 9y ago
  Yet technology has never been a problem or a limiting factor of Uber. Uber deserves plenty of criticism, yet it seems rich to blame technology when they grew from nothing to enormous with few if any hiccups. It worked. But yeah, extraordinarily few internal projects can be turned into an external project without enormous rework. It's only the myth of middle managers who perceive software as a growing asset who think otherwise.
- sidlls 9y ago
  That explains most of the engineering culture in the Valley, really. Even the "leadership" is on board with it, because they have their own resume driven development to pursue.

madeofpalk 9y ago

Also they could maybe stop literally giving away free money.

andrewem 9y ago

Their revenues are in the billions per year, and so their investors would be looking for new revenues in the billions. The assumption that there's an untapped multi-billion dollar market for logistics software that they could quickly dominate - quickly enough to avoid running out of money - seems unwarranted.

bwilliams18 9y ago
There's an enormous opportunity in UberEATS if they can get the unit economics right. They could also retreat into already profitable markets .
- rtpg 9y ago
  I've used UberEATS a couple times, but after figuring out that it's basically impossible for delivery people to make much real money off of it I feel really bad. Not sure if the unit economics can ever work out.
ProAm 9y ago
Revenues are in the billions, but profits are nil, and if it comes to bankruptcy vs pivot and earn a profit everyone will find it acceptable. Of course they'd want billions, they want an ROI from the unicorn, it might not be there in its current unicorn form.

maxxxxx 9y ago

"license their logistics software to a lot of companies." It's quite tricky to package an internally used system into something that can be sold and used by others. It most likely takes years to get to any significant amount of sales.

ProAm 9y ago
Every taxi company on earth would buy this immediately.
- jdmichal 9y ago
  That is... Overly optimistic at best. You're assuming every taxi company on Earth: * Thinks they have a logistics problem in the first place. * Thinks that software can solve that problem. * Are in the market for software to solve that problem. * Think that Uber's software is the software that would solve that problem the best. That's a hell of a lot of assumptions, each of which is fairly easy to pick apart.
  - ProAm 9y ago
    I politely disagree. Taxi companies hate ride sharing companies. As an industry that refused change for decades saw a software company come in and eat away market share quickly. If Uber were to 'go away' and allow the taxi company to use the ride hailing software they would be all over it. [1][2][3][4] And this is just the taxi industry, there are plenty of industries that would love to use a logistics software to help their business. The only real magic Uber has is this software, the rest is easily replaceable or overhead. [1] https://daymondjohnssuccessformula.com/launch-pad/cab-companies-hate-uber-means/ https://daymondjohnssuccessformula.com/launch-pad/cab-compan... [2]https://www.watchdog.org/california/the-uber-effect-why-cab-companies-hate-ridesharing/article_93880bef-beb1-52d6-8a4a-c4b2269f95c5.html https://www.watchdog.org/california/the-uber-effect-why-cab-... [3] https://www.quora.com/Why-do-taxi-drivers-hate-Uber-if-its-competitive-business https://www.quora.com/Why-do-taxi-drivers-hate-Uber-if-its-c... [4] https://therideshareguy.com/what-taxis-need-to-do-to-survive-uber-and-lyft/ https://therideshareguy.com/what-taxis-need-to-do-to-survive...