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Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

bloomberg.com

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Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#51

Post by antiviral »

ylhert wrote: post #26
antiviral wrote: post #6

Uber is making the rest of us in SV look terrible. 1. Collect a huge pile of money at sky-high valuations from those who really should know better. 2. Ignore any sensible unit economics and undercut local taxi/transport services until those small businesses go bankrupt since they don't have Uber's money pile. 3. Evade local regulations that everyone else follows in the name of 'innovation' even though the reality is…

Uber does background checks, not sure where the idea that they are skipping them comes from

By 'background check' I mean a process that the local govt. believes is necessary based on experience and past incidents, not something that someone at Uber came up with randomly.

"News of assaults by ride-hailing drivers has been a frequent occurrence. Reports of rape, battery and harassment have grabbed headlines in California, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, Washington, Florida and many other states. While some of these drivers have clean criminal histories, others had prior convictions that Uber and Lyft's background checks didn't find."

https://www.cnet.com/news/california-law-tightens-background...

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#52

Post by wapz »

ra1n85 wrote: post #21
jamez1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A $25 hold for a fare that might be $15 doesn't sound unreasonable? Is ride-sharing that big of a cost for your day to day?

When you're so broke that an extra couple of dollars will put you in overdraft territory, it's not reasonable. At least they inform you in most hotels. I have not used Lyft - I would hope they do the same.

Not to sound rude but someone who's that short on cash might be better off going by public transit, walking, or using a bicycle.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#53

Post by mgraczyk »

Analemma_ wrote: post #43
ylhert wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber does background checks, not sure where the idea that they are skipping them comes from

It might come from the fact that they ragequit Austin rather than do background checks.

Uber was already doing background checks in Austin. They quit in protest of a requirement that drivers be fingerprinted and forced to drive around with Uber decals on their cars.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#54

Post by [deleted] »

MarkPNeyer wrote: post #41
duaneb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not before destroying any competition with cripplingly low rates. That's the problem: I can't hail a goddamn taxi anymore, despite it being cheaper by any back of the envelope calculation for society as a whole.

> despite it being cheaper by any back of the envelope calculation for society as a whole. Can you explain this? Not challenging, just curious.

[deleted]

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#55

Post by lacampbell »

mindcrime wrote: post #49
antiviral wrote: post #6

Uber is making the rest of us in SV look terrible. 1. Collect a huge pile of money at sky-high valuations from those who really should know better. 2. Ignore any sensible unit economics and undercut local taxi/transport services until those small businesses go bankrupt since they don't have Uber's money pile. 3. Evade local regulations that everyone else follows in the name of 'innovation' even though the reality is…

Evade local regulations that everyone else follows in the name of 'innovation' even though the reality is they are just taking a free pass on conducting background checks, and skipping safety guidelines. When they replace all taxis, do they really think they can just permanently ignore all driving laws? Since when do hackers bleat about obeying laws and regulations? What happened to having a "we can do better" mindse…

Since when do hackers bleat about obeying laws and regulations? What happened to having a "we can do better" mindset? Has everybody wigged out and flipped their "I want a nanny state to protect me 24/7" bit?

Hacker News is fairly progressive/authoritarian. The kind of attitude you describe can still be found on slashdot.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#56

Post by brohoolio »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #38
toomuchtodo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I tried Lyft the other day, but after they charged me $25 as an "authorization hold" without notification, I cancelled my ride and decided to stick with Uber. Note that Uber's auth charge is usually around $1. $25 may not be a significant amount for some, but it's non-trivial for a college student like myself. Most gas pumps authorize $100. Use a credit card.

Personally I've never experienced that

You probably haven't used a debit card to purchase gas.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#57

Post by dllthomas »

duaneb wrote: post #34
quickben wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, about (2). Taxi got a bit cheaper. Also for peak times people use them to dodge surge pricing. It's equalizing.

There aren't any taxis anymore in SF.

There weren't any taxis before in SF.

"It's faster than the fucking taxis... of which there are five."

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#58

Post by nstj »

ylhert wrote: post #30

My understanding is that in mature markets, Uber is profitable. The issue is that it takes a few years to become profitable in a market and so it's extreme growth pushes out profitability on the whole for a few years

From the article:

> Even in the U.S., Uber's home market, the company continues to lose money. After turning a slight profit in the in the first quarter of this year, Uber lost $100 million in the U.S. in the second quarter. The loss increased in the third quarter, the person said.

I thought that they'd turned the corner in the US too, but go figure. I guess the claim that Travis makes about driverless cars relates to their profit margin as much as it does to their long term competitive advantage [0]:

> Developing an autonomous vehicle, he adds, “is basically existential for us.”

[0]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-fi...

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#59

Post by Swizec »

So what's "net revenue" in this context?

I always thought revenue was income before costs, and profit was revenue minus cost. Gross revenue would make sense as "total income", but net revenue doesn't make any sense to me. Clearly I'm missing something.

Can someone explain?

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#60

Post by TheCondor »

Analemma_ wrote: post #43
ylhert wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber does background checks, not sure where the idea that they are skipping them comes from

It might come from the fact that they ragequit Austin rather than do background checks.

I thought it had something to do with the type of background check and what was included
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