Uber Turns to Saudi Arabia for $3.5B Cash Infusion

Post by linkregister » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 11:41 PM UTC

cylinder wrote: post #95

linkregister wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the Uber blogs and public statements, the company is far more ambitious than simply being the ride sharer with the largest market share. The company's vision is to make transportation as seamless and reliable as running water. They have other projects going on right now, such as delivery truck automation and self-driving cars. I would consider them to be competing not only with Lyft but also with Hertz…

Please, this is all hype to capture investors. What does Uber have other than money that gives them an advantage in self driving cars? Having users doesn't matter either. Google could add self driving taxi summoning to Google Maps overnight and we'd all be using it.

    Drive | 10 minutes
    Bus   | 35 minutes
    Walk  | 75 minutes
    Bike  | 25 minutes
    UberX | 13 minutes

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 11:49 PM UTC

linkregister wrote: post #121

cylinder wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, this is all hype to capture investors. What does Uber have other than money that gives them an advantage in self driving cars? Having users doesn't matter either. Google could add self driving taxi summoning to Google Maps overnight and we'd all be using it.

On my Android phone, when I look up directions for something, it shows something like this in Google Maps: Drive | 10 minutes Bus | 35 minutes Walk | 75 minutes Bike | 25 minutes UberX | 13 minutes This could be some add-in from having the Uber app installed; I have Lyft installed as well and it doesn't appear. I agree that this "like running water" tag line is a bit over the top.

Post by stefanstokic » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 11:54 PM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #45

patmcguire wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find the link because the huge media churn makes it impossible to find anything that isn't the most recent story, but didn't they ban Chris Sacca from the Uber office for hanging around and buying secondary shares from people? I think the lockdown happened after that.

You're probably thinking of Sacca and Twitter: http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/27/jp-morgan-twitter-chris-sac... He may have done the same for Uber, but I haven't heard anything about that at all.

Post by tlrobinson » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #98

methehack wrote: post #82

I've always been a little confused about uber's capital needs. When I first heard about uber, the part I thought was super-clever was that you wouldn't _need_ lots of capital because all the drivers would have their own cars. Leveraging the latent capital of one side of the two-sided market was the genius of it. (Airbnb too) Same for the staffing -- hook up both sides of the market. No need to pay anyone out of your…

I believe that your assumption of insane driver subsidies is indeed the reason they are sucking down so much money. That is a problem, because the moment that people have to pay the actual costs of an Uber ride, they may go back to taxis or driving their own cars. The only strategy I can see with the absurd amounts they are raising is that they are trying to get enough money to sustain the subsidies until they kill a…

Post by greenyoda » Wed, Jun 01, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #120

CPLX wrote: post #5

Sincere question, can someone explain to me a plausible scenario at this point by which early investors actually receive a payout even slightly commensurate with their supposedly incredible investment? For example, how can someone in the seed round genuinely be able to cash out given the unbelievable amount of dilution that has taken place. What are the plausible scenarios where this occurs? EDIT: Specifically asking…

>plausible scenario Uber becomes the cab of choice for 2.5bn people, the rough number who have cell phones. Value those at $50 each and you have a $125bn valuation for the floatation. Not sure it'll happen but that's probably the kind of thing the investors are thinking.