3 ms·

Ok, let's say Uber is executing the software side of its business badly. Is the argument then "Uber can never be profitable unless it fixes its software busines

Ok, let's say Uber is executing the software side of its business badly. Is the argument then "Uber can never be profitable unless it fixes its software business" (which could be true, but is a much weaker claim)? Or is it that "The cost of operating a software business is intrinsically so high that no matter how well Uber executes, it can never be profitable?" That would be a massive counterexample to software-is-eating-the-world. Usually it works the other way - tech eating non-tech, even though engineers are expensive.

freeone3000 5y ago
Does tech eat non-tech, or do a handful of heavily invested companies selling at a loss beat out people who don't do that? Looking at the top 10 companies, three are in tech, tied with American Healthcare. 2 are finance, 2 are O&G. The internet fundamentally changed how companies do business, but really, what makes Uber a tech company -- their app? They don't sell their app. Anyone can have an app nowadays. They're a taxi company with a large network and good name recognition, and that's their key benefit.
- jonas21 5y ago
  Top 10 by what metric? By market cap the top 10 companies are [1]: 1. Apple 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Alphabet 5. Facebook 6. Tencent 7. Tesla 8. Berkshire Hathaway 9. TSMC 10. Alibaba With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway, these are all tech companies. And a fair chunk of Berkshire Hathaway's market cap is Apple stock [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by... [2] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-90-billion-apple-stake-20-percent-berkshire-hathaway-2020-6 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffe...
  - freeone3000 5y ago
    Going off the Fortune 500 earnings listing. Market cap is an indication of valuation, not an indication of how much business a company actually does.
mola 5y ago
So someone invented a slogan "software-is-eating-the-world" and you use it as an argument? Perhaps that slogan was invented as part of a huge hype cycle where some early success drove a gold rush type frenzy that has nothing to do with reality? Uber could only exists because very few people with way too much money decided it could be profitable. When you so few people are able to effect power on the world, you can see crazy irrational things happening. Funny thing is people are so blinded by their own technoptimist-freemarket ideology, that they work hard to rationalize random decisions made by people who happened to be rich because there happen's to be a large amount of black goo under their feet.

freeone3000 5y ago

Does tech eat non-tech, or do a handful of heavily invested companies selling at a loss beat out people who don't do that? Looking at the top 10 companies, three are in tech, tied with American Healthcare. 2 are finance, 2 are O&G. The internet fundamentally changed how companies do business, but really, what makes Uber a tech company -- their app? They don't sell their app. Anyone can have an app nowadays. They're a taxi company with a large network and good name recognition, and that's their key benefit.

jonas21 5y ago
Top 10 by what metric? By market cap the top 10 companies are [1]: 1. Apple 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Alphabet 5. Facebook 6. Tencent 7. Tesla 8. Berkshire Hathaway 9. TSMC 10. Alibaba With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway, these are all tech companies. And a fair chunk of Berkshire Hathaway's market cap is Apple stock [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by... [2] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-90-billion-apple-stake-20-percent-berkshire-hathaway-2020-6 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffe...
- freeone3000 5y ago
  Going off the Fortune 500 earnings listing. Market cap is an indication of valuation, not an indication of how much business a company actually does.

mola 5y ago

So someone invented a slogan "software-is-eating-the-world" and you use it as an argument? Perhaps that slogan was invented as part of a huge hype cycle where some early success drove a gold rush type frenzy that has nothing to do with reality? Uber could only exists because very few people with way too much money decided it could be profitable. When you so few people are able to effect power on the world, you can see crazy irrational things happening. Funny thing is people are so blinded by their own technoptimist-freemarket ideology, that they work hard to rationalize random decisions made by people who happened to be rich because there happen's to be a large amount of black goo under their feet.