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> -18.67 billion $ in revenue You’re confusing revenue and earnings/net income. Revenue is the sum of the sales. Net income, or earnings, is how much money is

> -18.67 billion $ in revenue You’re confusing revenue and earnings/net income. Revenue is the sum of the sales. Net income, or earnings, is how much money is left after accounting for expenses. Uber alone has tens of billions of dollars in revenue.

XJ6 7y ago
You're not wrong about OP's confusion, but a quick note that uber recently reported quarterly revenue of ~3.1bn which means "tens of billions" annually is exaggerating a little. Does uber count it's fees as revenue or does it count fees and the fares (which get passed back to the drivers) as revenue? My opinionated take is that if uber wants to pretend that drivers are not employees and it's just a marketplace then they shouldn't be booking the fare as revenue, just their cut but I'm not an accountant and I don't make the rules.
- OJFord 7y ago
  > My opinionated take is that if uber wants to pretend that drivers are not employees and it's just a marketplace then they shouldn't be booking the fare as revenue, just their cut but I'm not an accountant and I don't make the rules. Good point, but Uber literally takes the money through its app, so I don't suppose that would be possible.
  - everythingswan 7y ago
    Yea, classic case of low vs. high margin businesses. Travel is a great example. You would think sites like Expedia would make a healthy margin on airline tickets. Due to the way it's set up (booking systems, airlines, competition) the actual net per ticket is something like $5 for domestic flights. Last I checked Expedia specifically, most of their revenue was on hotels. Contrast that with a high margin business like consulting services or a proprietary technology/product and there's a huge difference in net profit between the two at $10m annual revenue.
    - sverige 7y ago
      Revenue is King, margin is Queen.
      - RyanAF7 7y ago
        If that's true then Retained Earnings is Emperor. And, the Emperor has no clothes.
  - twic 7y ago
    Does PayPal count money paid through its app as revenue?
    - OJFord 7y ago
      Good point. I believe it (and similarly Amazon marketplace sales) uses nominee accounts. I don't use Uber so I don't know if the payments are always to the same 'Uber Ltd' or not, but you're right that would seem to be a good option.
    - dd36 7y ago
      No. Neither does a bank. That’s, for lack of a better term, escrow.
- rockinghigh 7y ago
  They only count their share, not the full fare (agent revenue recognition). I was referring to annual numbers.

XJ6 7y ago

You're not wrong about OP's confusion, but a quick note that uber recently reported quarterly revenue of ~3.1bn which means "tens of billions" annually is exaggerating a little. Does uber count it's fees as revenue or does it count fees and the fares (which get passed back to the drivers) as revenue? My opinionated take is that if uber wants to pretend that drivers are not employees and it's just a marketplace then they shouldn't be booking the fare as revenue, just their cut but I'm not an accountant and I don't make the rules.

OJFord 7y ago
> My opinionated take is that if uber wants to pretend that drivers are not employees and it's just a marketplace then they shouldn't be booking the fare as revenue, just their cut but I'm not an accountant and I don't make the rules. Good point, but Uber literally takes the money through its app, so I don't suppose that would be possible.
- everythingswan 7y ago
  Yea, classic case of low vs. high margin businesses. Travel is a great example. You would think sites like Expedia would make a healthy margin on airline tickets. Due to the way it's set up (booking systems, airlines, competition) the actual net per ticket is something like $5 for domestic flights. Last I checked Expedia specifically, most of their revenue was on hotels. Contrast that with a high margin business like consulting services or a proprietary technology/product and there's a huge difference in net profit between the two at $10m annual revenue.
  - sverige 7y ago
    Revenue is King, margin is Queen.
    - RyanAF7 7y ago
      If that's true then Retained Earnings is Emperor. And, the Emperor has no clothes.
- twic 7y ago
  Does PayPal count money paid through its app as revenue?
  - OJFord 7y ago
    Good point. I believe it (and similarly Amazon marketplace sales) uses nominee accounts. I don't use Uber so I don't know if the payments are always to the same 'Uber Ltd' or not, but you're right that would seem to be a good option.
  - dd36 7y ago
    No. Neither does a bank. That’s, for lack of a better term, escrow.
rockinghigh 7y ago
They only count their share, not the full fare (agent revenue recognition). I was referring to annual numbers.