8 ms·

Uber’s Financials: An Inside Look

55 points by scop 9y ago

greenleafjacob 9y ago
http://archive.is/P4Kl5 http://archive.is/P4Kl5
- todayiamme 9y ago
  Clicking on "Balance Sheet" on that archive.is link took me to (what seems to be) a malicious website. Can you please double check and take it down just in case?
  - maaarghk 9y ago
    I don't see the same. It is a link to another archive.is page (although it doesn't really function like it should). You may have malware installed on your machine which is hijacking links.
    - todayiamme 9y ago
      It was on my iPhone though?
- lgats 9y ago
  Alternatively, https://www.fullwsj.com/graphics/uber-financials/ https://www.fullwsj.com/graphics/uber-financials/
  - aglionby 9y ago
    A warning that this link redirects through Facebook for me for some reason.
    - ngoel36 9y ago
      That's the point :). (WSJ doesn't apply the paywall for social media links)
      - kbenson 9y ago
        Firefox containers really helped with this (the worry of going through Facebook, that is). I have a Facebook Container (which facebook always opens in), and a News Container (which I just set WSJ to always open in. The redirect goes through both containers, and facebook obviously sees the referral and knows where I was redirected to (since it confirms I want to leave FB), but at least when I end up at WSJ any direct Facebook tracking links (cookies) aren't shuttled with me (they just have to rely on their massive dataset of information to link me as they would for any random request, which I'm sure they can...)
      - aglionby 9y ago
        Oops, brain didn't make the connection there :)
thisisit 9y ago
This is really a replay of the 3rd Quarter results: http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/uber-financials-loss-softbank/ http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/uber-financials-loss-softbank/ The point is while losses were $1.4 billion, the free cash flow was actually negative $585 million. At this rate, excluding the Softbank investment, it will take Uber more than 4 years before they run out of money.
- rileymat2 9y ago
  So why take on additional money if you plan on going public soon?
  - brndnmtthws 9y ago
    Best way to get rich is to be rich. They can buy their way to success.
saas_co_de 9y ago
One of the things I find interesting is how they treat bookings like revenue. In reality Uber is just like Visa. They are a transaction processor. Visa does not report revenue of trillions of dollars per year. For Uber actual revenue is somewhere between "Gross Profit" (865M) and "Net Revenue" (2B) and then their actual operating expenses are between 2B and 3.2B depending on what you call revenue and cost of revenue. The bottom line is that they are taking huge losses for relatively small amounts of revenue. Reporting your transaction volume as revenue is really infantile and should get you laughed out of the room, but here we are.
- code4tee 9y ago
  Groupon did something similar. It’s silly and anyone with two brain cells firing sees right though the BS. Also they want to claim their drivers are not employees but then want to count the full fare as “revenue.” Sigh.
  - ncallaway 9y ago
    It does seem to fully contradict the notion that driver's are independent contractors if they count the fare as revenue.
  - fancyfacebook 9y ago
    This is one of the reasons I bailed on accounting as a possible study in college. I really liked the idea of accounting for the whole of a massive business and understanding every unit, but most of the advanced stuff ended up being "here's how to get creative and not go to prison over it". Obfuscation over clarification. Really strange profession.
    - cjalmeida 9y ago
      IMO is quite the opposite. Accounting, as "science", is mostly about making sure numbers represent a good view of reality, with a very conservative bias. Those example are gimmicks set by C management that, while legal, certainly raised a few eyebrows in the accounting dept. Also, having accounting training helps detection BS practices.
nathanvanfleet 9y ago
If the endgame is an autonomous fleet, you just might want to show people how big of a market this is and how much you're capturing.
gregshap 9y ago
Some takeaways: * Close to $10B in gross bookings, which in a back of the envelope guess means 5-10 million rides per day (assuming $10-$20 per ride) If anything maybe more as 'pool' options get more popular. * Slower growth for Uber means they are still increasing topline bookings by 10+% per quarter * Uber's reported R&D spending is around 15% of revenue. The proportion is comparable to companies like google & microsoft, but uber is still 10x smaller overall
golfer 9y ago
Gross bookings: $9.705 billion versus $8.741 billion last quarter (up 11%). Net revenue: $2.013 billion versus $1.658 billion last quarter (up 21%). Net income: -$1.462 billion versus -$1.064 billion last quarter. Total assets (including cash, cash equivalents, investments, and more): $15.64 billion versus $15.708 billion a year ago.

55 points by scop 9y ago

greenleafjacob 9y ago

http://archive.is/P4Kl5 http://archive.is/P4Kl5

todayiamme 9y ago
Clicking on "Balance Sheet" on that archive.is link took me to (what seems to be) a malicious website. Can you please double check and take it down just in case?
- maaarghk 9y ago
  I don't see the same. It is a link to another archive.is page (although it doesn't really function like it should). You may have malware installed on your machine which is hijacking links.
  - todayiamme 9y ago
    It was on my iPhone though?
lgats 9y ago
Alternatively, https://www.fullwsj.com/graphics/uber-financials/ https://www.fullwsj.com/graphics/uber-financials/
- aglionby 9y ago
  A warning that this link redirects through Facebook for me for some reason.
  - ngoel36 9y ago
    That's the point :). (WSJ doesn't apply the paywall for social media links)
    - kbenson 9y ago
      Firefox containers really helped with this (the worry of going through Facebook, that is). I have a Facebook Container (which facebook always opens in), and a News Container (which I just set WSJ to always open in. The redirect goes through both containers, and facebook obviously sees the referral and knows where I was redirected to (since it confirms I want to leave FB), but at least when I end up at WSJ any direct Facebook tracking links (cookies) aren't shuttled with me (they just have to rely on their massive dataset of information to link me as they would for any random request, which I'm sure they can...)
    - aglionby 9y ago
      Oops, brain didn't make the connection there :)

thisisit 9y ago

This is really a replay of the 3rd Quarter results: http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/uber-financials-loss-softbank/ http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/uber-financials-loss-softbank/ The point is while losses were $1.4 billion, the free cash flow was actually negative $585 million. At this rate, excluding the Softbank investment, it will take Uber more than 4 years before they run out of money.

rileymat2 9y ago
So why take on additional money if you plan on going public soon?
- brndnmtthws 9y ago
  Best way to get rich is to be rich. They can buy their way to success.

saas_co_de 9y ago

One of the things I find interesting is how they treat bookings like revenue. In reality Uber is just like Visa. They are a transaction processor. Visa does not report revenue of trillions of dollars per year. For Uber actual revenue is somewhere between "Gross Profit" (865M) and "Net Revenue" (2B) and then their actual operating expenses are between 2B and 3.2B depending on what you call revenue and cost of revenue. The bottom line is that they are taking huge losses for relatively small amounts of revenue. Reporting your transaction volume as revenue is really infantile and should get you laughed out of the room, but here we are.

code4tee 9y ago
Groupon did something similar. It’s silly and anyone with two brain cells firing sees right though the BS. Also they want to claim their drivers are not employees but then want to count the full fare as “revenue.” Sigh.
- ncallaway 9y ago
  It does seem to fully contradict the notion that driver's are independent contractors if they count the fare as revenue.
- fancyfacebook 9y ago
  This is one of the reasons I bailed on accounting as a possible study in college. I really liked the idea of accounting for the whole of a massive business and understanding every unit, but most of the advanced stuff ended up being "here's how to get creative and not go to prison over it". Obfuscation over clarification. Really strange profession.
  - cjalmeida 9y ago
    IMO is quite the opposite. Accounting, as "science", is mostly about making sure numbers represent a good view of reality, with a very conservative bias. Those example are gimmicks set by C management that, while legal, certainly raised a few eyebrows in the accounting dept. Also, having accounting training helps detection BS practices.

nathanvanfleet 9y ago

If the endgame is an autonomous fleet, you just might want to show people how big of a market this is and how much you're capturing.

gregshap 9y ago

Some takeaways: * Close to $10B in gross bookings, which in a back of the envelope guess means 5-10 million rides per day (assuming $10-$20 per ride) If anything maybe more as 'pool' options get more popular. * Slower growth for Uber means they are still increasing topline bookings by 10+% per quarter * Uber's reported R&D spending is around 15% of revenue. The proportion is comparable to companies like google & microsoft, but uber is still 10x smaller overall

golfer 9y ago

Gross bookings: $9.705 billion versus $8.741 billion last quarter (up 11%). Net revenue: $2.013 billion versus $1.658 billion last quarter (up 21%). Net income: -$1.462 billion versus -$1.064 billion last quarter. Total assets (including cash, cash equivalents, investments, and more): $15.64 billion versus $15.708 billion a year ago.