For a certain definition of "success", yes definitely. Uber's sky-high valuation (and the accompanying deluge of investment dollars) hinges on their ability to

For a certain definition of "success", yes definitely. Uber's sky-high valuation (and the accompanying deluge of investment dollars) hinges on their ability to address a market larger than US taxicabs. So press about them doing something other than driving around people in a market other than this one is worth a lot. Are these experiments dollars-and-cents profitable? Almost certainly not.