211–220 of 239 posts
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Are you also doing self driving car research from the money?
Do you think Uber has spent 15 billion dollars on research? I have a bridge to sell you if you do.
I like how the WSJ headline tries to imply casualty between loss and leaving of finance head. Why cannot these guys simply share the news instead of trying to imply the cause.
"as, conjunction: used to indicate that something happens during the time when something else is taking place: Frank watched him as he ambled through the crowd | as she grew older, she kept more to herself." So they're just trying to mention both big news items in the same headline. The casualty[sic] is all in your head.
P.S:- We both misspelled "causality", what a "casualty" :)
$708 million loss, narrowed from $991 million last quarter 18% growth from last quarter (note: that's not Y/Y. this is ridiculously fast, given the huge base.) 708mm loss / 3.4 billion in revenue is only about 20% under even. And what most people miss, is that the 3.4 billion is the 30% cut Uber takes from a ride. Prices don't have to rise 20% to break even, prices have to rise 6% (assuming no efficiency improvements…
The few numbers that Uber posted look like good news for them, but let's not overstate things. The reason that people post numbers YoY instead of QoQ most of the time is not to artificially inflate numbers. It's because lots of companies have yearly seasonality. If you looked at Apple's numbers for Q4 (real Q4, Oct-Dec, not Apple's fiscal Q4) quarter over quarter, they'd always look like they were on a massive, incre…
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2014_taxicab_fact_...
It looks like Taxis are seasonal and so they'll see a drop in revenue over summer (page 4). Though elsewhere they note that airport fares are up over summer.
It also looks like there's a large, several day, drop over the Xmas period every year, which could potentially make Q1 better than Q4. Although I know in the UK at least Xmas rates are higher.
Still, without seeing the actual figures and just eyeballing it, it's hard to say.
As you say though, they could have decreased costs just by dropping what they pay their drivers. Ahem, I mean the rate they offer jobs to self-employed definitely-not-employed independent contractors.
(I wasn't able to read the source article, so don't know if they've addressed that).
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> They're decoupling the price that the rider pays from what the driver gets. And this is somewhat transparent, right? Everyone loves getting middle manned, I'm sure neither drivers nor passengers will mind. Getting a lift is a commodity. It needs to be cheaper form the buyer's perspective and it needs to pay better from the driver's perspective. Not sure how that works while also earning bing money for the middle ma…
(on the assumption that your first sentence was sarcastic) Everyone does love getting middle-manned, it's why uber is successful. We had taxi services before uber, but they were unreliable and sometimes meant calling around 3 or 4 to get a cab at busy times. No accountability of where the cab was if it was late / no showed. Uber changed that and people flocked to them in their droves. Same for airbnb and basically an…
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Not sure what "evil" laws you are talking about, but car safety, maintenance, insurance, fare counter requirements, mandatory drivers background check etc. are all beneficial to the user in my book.
> car safety, maintenance, insurance All those laws exist for all cars, not just taxis. > fare counter requirements Classic example of over-regulation, leading to crappy service, low supply, and high prices. > mandatory drivers background check If some person is so suspect that you cannot trust them to drive you around in public while being tracked by GPS continuously, why is he not locked up? This is a bullshit made…
I don't know where you are from, but here taxi cars have stricter safety, ecology, age (and probably more) requirements than private cars. Which makes sense as they usually spend more time on roads and carry more people.
"Classic example of over-regulation, leading to crappy service, low supply, and high prices."
Um, no. Fare counter regulations and checks just make sure that it shows distance/fare correctly, and as far as I know, there's no monopoly in this market -- it's much like scales regulation in grocery stores.
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> I rarely have the time or risk tolerance explore alternatives. If your goal is to save time and mitigate risk, then pre-book with a local service before you even depart. Or, as many business travelers do, ask the company/person you're meeting to arrange a car to collect you. Then you just have to look out for one of those drivers in Arrivals holding a card with your name. Many of the international airports I've tra…
> Many of the international airports I've traveled to have excellent transport links to the city centre, primarily by rail. They're quick, cost effective and low risk. While I agree with your point, rarely are the rail links less risky to find/buy tickets/navigate than simply walking out the door at arrivals and catching a cab door to door.
The two airports I fly into quite regularly are London Heathrow and Vienna. At both locations I'd prefer to catch the Airport Express train than mess about with taxis in traffic.
I was in Hong Kong a few months ago and it was extremely straight forward to catch the airport train. Very, very obvious where to go, how to buy tickets etc.
Try catching a cab from Sydney Kingsford Smith airport into the city during peak hour. You will sit on the Eastern Distributor for a long time.
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Not sure what "evil" laws you are talking about, but car safety, maintenance, insurance, fare counter requirements, mandatory drivers background check etc. are all beneficial to the user in my book.
> car safety, maintenance, insurance All those laws exist for all cars, not just taxis. > fare counter requirements Classic example of over-regulation, leading to crappy service, low supply, and high prices. > mandatory drivers background check If some person is so suspect that you cannot trust them to drive you around in public while being tracked by GPS continuously, why is he not locked up? This is a bullshit made…
Are you fucking kidding me?
Prison sentences are usually not "for the rest of your natural life", and repeat offending is VERY COMMON.
Edit: GPS tracked by a fucking iPhone app. That the driver can turn off. What the fuck fantasy world do you live in that you can't imagine someone who is walking the streets possibly having bad intentions for other people.
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> Saying it in a comment thread on a post about Uber's loss is not in bad taste. I dunno. The comment doesn't seem very relevant, being basically one random guy's opinion of what he read on the 'tubes about another guy he probably never met, and extrapolating that to be some sort of argument about the profitability of a company. To me, it just kinda feels like thinly disguised bandwagoning to get internet points. I r…
I wouldn't assume that everyone knows about the death of his mother. I didn't until you posted the article. In this case, the comment was relevant to its parent because the parent was adding an anecdote about the number of people they know who had ridden Uber versus Lyft, and the comment was adding its own anecdote about their workplace/coworkers switching to Lyft. Like I said, I think it depends on context. In this…
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To be fair if you take an uber regularly on a regular route you know how much it is going to cost. Sure they could bump up prices when a user takes a journey they don't usually take but it is noticeable when your regular ride cost increases.
they can 'simply' (probably not that simple, of course), introduce higher fares for new users. never used uber myself, and if i did, I'd have little to compare the cost to. That 6% they need could easily be 7, 8, 9 or 10%, and I wouldn't know.
For the rates Uber charges in NYC (UberX)
Base Fare: $2.55. (NYC Yellow Cab - $2.50) Per Minute: $0.35. (Yellow - $.50) Per Mile: $1.75. (Yellow - $2.50) Cancellation Fee: $5 (Yellow -- no cancellation) Service Fees: $0 Minimum Fare: $8. (Yellow - no minimum)
Chicago: (Uber X)
Base Fare: $1.70 Per Minute: $0.20 Per Mile: $0.95 Cancellation Fee: $5 Service Fees: $1.40 Minimum Fare: $4.40
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> Saying it in a comment thread on a post about Uber's loss is not in bad taste. I dunno. The comment doesn't seem very relevant, being basically one random guy's opinion of what he read on the 'tubes about another guy he probably never met, and extrapolating that to be some sort of argument about the profitability of a company. To me, it just kinda feels like thinly disguised bandwagoning to get internet points. I r…
I'm completely ignorant of all of this but if the CEOs behaviour is part of his reason for changing loyalties as a customer then it seems highly relevant to me. Even if the CEO is a perfect saint, stating their reasoning is valid IMO. If people stop using a company because of the behaviour of a CEO, be the real or merely perceived, that must impact profit and is likely to increasingly do so, no?
At least from my own perception, the character of the CEO usually doesn't come up as relevant for the people using the platform. On the rider side, it's usually been a matter of how convenient/frustrating their experience with any given platform is, and on the driver side, there's generally no concept of loyalty whatsoever; they just try to be on as many platforms as possible to maximize income.