9 ms·

Uber: 21,000 Lyft: 5,700 GrubHub: 2,800 Nvidia: 18,000 (thanks 'dogma1138) 21,000 is a big number, even having considered The Development

Uber: 21,000 Lyft: 5,700 GrubHub: 2,800 Nvidia: 18,000 (thanks 'dogma1138) 21,000 is a big number, even having considered The Development Abstraction Layer.

lumost 6y ago
the two largest employers are both the number one players in their market, being the number 1 player in a market may require that you invest for "first mover advantage". This would lead to a lot of failed/re-tooled initiatives over time. Being number 2 often just means copying the number 1 player in a more capital efficient manner, product descriptions become "X did it this way, customers want it this way". In a winner takes all market, being the first mover matters a lot.
- toyg 6y ago
  Also, diminishing returns. In many markets you can "get to the table" with a small crew, but to actually win the customer you'll need bodies almost entirely dedicated to it. And it's that sort of margin, multiplied over and over, that makes one company the undisputed n.1.
onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
~10 years ago, Nintendo had only 3000 employees and was the most profitable public company per employee. They only have 6200 now. Edit: Source: https://www.ft.com/content/9d9624a4-8341-11dd-907e-000077b07658 https://www.ft.com/content/9d9624a4-8341-11dd-907e-000077b07...
- nilkn 6y ago
  Where did you get the 100 number from? I think Nintendo is an interesting company for comparison here but I do find it hard to believe they only had 100 employees as recently as 2011.
- sgerenser 6y ago
  Nintendo with only 100 employees 10 years ago? Missing a zero maybe?
orange_county 6y ago
It’s unfair to compare Lyft and Uber as the latter company is invested in more than just ride sharing.
- gher-shyu3i 6y ago
  Uber also works in several countries globally.
dogma1138 6y ago
I work for the a huge financial institution, its the largest exchange by volume, we operate in multiple markets all across the globe and have our trading platforms distributed across many locations such as NYC, London and Tokyo in datacenters we own, manage and operate, our matching engine matches more daily trades than there are daily Tweets all with a guaranteed sub 50 microseconds latency with 99th percentile sitting around 20 microseconds. We have about 4500 (up to 2 years ago it was around 2500 a bunch came in when we acquired a company nearly our size, it will probably shrink to about 3500-3000 over the next few years) employees, and about 1000 of them are engineers who develop and support a few 100’s of applications. We have to comply to dozens of different regulations in dozens of regulatory regimes, so it’s unlikely that Twitter needs more compliance and lawyer than we do. We are considered critical infrastructure, if we have a hiccup the world’s financial markets will be having a stroke. If we go down or worse that’s not some lost ad revenue but bilious to trillions on the line. 21K for Twitter... Lol...
- kortilla 6y ago
  > If we go down or worse that’s not some lost ad revenue but bilious to trillions on the line. What products are exclusively traded on your exchange? If NASDAQ or NYSE goes down for half a day it’s just an article on WSJ at best. They shut down every night and for entire days on holidays. What financial exchange truly has a meaningful impact when it goes down?
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    Derivatives and futures a lot of them are exclusive contracts not available on other exchanges, if we go down during trading hours we take the market with us.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
    Equities aren’t a real economy choke point. They are also, as you observe, federated. A more critical and delicate financial artery is the tri-party repo marker. If BoNY Mellon or JPMorgan’s repo desks went offline, it would almost certainly shut down large swathes of the American economy, prompt a credit crisis and merit urgent Federal Reserve and possibly Congressional intervention.
dmode 6y ago
Lyft has only US and Canada operations. Vast majority of Uber employees will be in customer service and operations. It it no way comparable to GitHub and Nvidia
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  I agree. It's a low margin business that has never made a profit, so it probably shouldn't be valued as a growth stock.
manquer 6y ago
Lyft had minuscule global presence. Uber has enormous global presence, it is a top 2 player in India , not to mention it's presence in Europe and other parts of the world. The sheer number of languages they have provide user support and staff for driver management in these two markets alone is enormous.

Uber: 21,000 Lyft: 5,700 GrubHub: 2,800 Nvidia: 18,000 (thanks 'dogma1138) 21,000 is a big number, even having considered The Development Abstraction Layer.

lumost 6y ago

the two largest employers are both the number one players in their market, being the number 1 player in a market may require that you invest for "first mover advantage". This would lead to a lot of failed/re-tooled initiatives over time. Being number 2 often just means copying the number 1 player in a more capital efficient manner, product descriptions become "X did it this way, customers want it this way". In a winner takes all market, being the first mover matters a lot.

toyg 6y ago
Also, diminishing returns. In many markets you can "get to the table" with a small crew, but to actually win the customer you'll need bodies almost entirely dedicated to it. And it's that sort of margin, multiplied over and over, that makes one company the undisputed n.1.

onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago

~10 years ago, Nintendo had only 3000 employees and was the most profitable public company per employee. They only have 6200 now. Edit: Source: https://www.ft.com/content/9d9624a4-8341-11dd-907e-000077b07658 https://www.ft.com/content/9d9624a4-8341-11dd-907e-000077b07...

nilkn 6y ago
Where did you get the 100 number from? I think Nintendo is an interesting company for comparison here but I do find it hard to believe they only had 100 employees as recently as 2011.
sgerenser 6y ago
Nintendo with only 100 employees 10 years ago? Missing a zero maybe?

orange_county 6y ago

It’s unfair to compare Lyft and Uber as the latter company is invested in more than just ride sharing.

gher-shyu3i 6y ago
Uber also works in several countries globally.

dogma1138 6y ago

I work for the a huge financial institution, its the largest exchange by volume, we operate in multiple markets all across the globe and have our trading platforms distributed across many locations such as NYC, London and Tokyo in datacenters we own, manage and operate, our matching engine matches more daily trades than there are daily Tweets all with a guaranteed sub 50 microseconds latency with 99th percentile sitting around 20 microseconds. We have about 4500 (up to 2 years ago it was around 2500 a bunch came in when we acquired a company nearly our size, it will probably shrink to about 3500-3000 over the next few years) employees, and about 1000 of them are engineers who develop and support a few 100’s of applications. We have to comply to dozens of different regulations in dozens of regulatory regimes, so it’s unlikely that Twitter needs more compliance and lawyer than we do. We are considered critical infrastructure, if we have a hiccup the world’s financial markets will be having a stroke. If we go down or worse that’s not some lost ad revenue but bilious to trillions on the line. 21K for Twitter... Lol...

kortilla 6y ago
> If we go down or worse that’s not some lost ad revenue but bilious to trillions on the line. What products are exclusively traded on your exchange? If NASDAQ or NYSE goes down for half a day it’s just an article on WSJ at best. They shut down every night and for entire days on holidays. What financial exchange truly has a meaningful impact when it goes down?
- dogma1138 6y ago
  Derivatives and futures a lot of them are exclusive contracts not available on other exchanges, if we go down during trading hours we take the market with us.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 6y ago
  Equities aren’t a real economy choke point. They are also, as you observe, federated. A more critical and delicate financial artery is the tri-party repo marker. If BoNY Mellon or JPMorgan’s repo desks went offline, it would almost certainly shut down large swathes of the American economy, prompt a credit crisis and merit urgent Federal Reserve and possibly Congressional intervention.

dmode 6y ago

Lyft has only US and Canada operations. Vast majority of Uber employees will be in customer service and operations. It it no way comparable to GitHub and Nvidia

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
I agree. It's a low margin business that has never made a profit, so it probably shouldn't be valued as a growth stock.

manquer 6y ago

Lyft had minuscule global presence. Uber has enormous global presence, it is a top 2 player in India , not to mention it's presence in Europe and other parts of the world. The sheer number of languages they have provide user support and staff for driver management in these two markets alone is enormous.