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Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#971

Post by flyosity »

hkmurakami wrote: post #117
flyosity wrote: post #5

If Uber ends up going down in flames, unable to recover from the scandals and lawsuits, and Lyft prevails, it will be the most incredible change of fate in the business world this century or perhaps longer. The future of automobiles and transportation is still being swirled about, and it feels like Uber's downfall has blown the game WIDE open, ready for anyone (maybe Uber, maybe Lyft, maybe Tesla, Google, Apple, an a…

Pardon me for being somewhat rude, but your perspective suggests that you're perhaps relatively young? IBM's recent demise, Lehman Brothers going down under, Enron, Arthur Anderson / Worldcom, the dismantling of Japanese mega conglomerates by the GHQ, Apple's 90's turnaround, the death of workstation companies, deregulation of US airlines, are all orders of magnitude more impactful than if Uber dies and Lyft prevails…

When I said "change of fate" I meant reversal of fortunes. Not very often the #1 dominant company in an industry sinks and the #2 takes over, which is the scenario I was discussing. Not just a top company declining, but their direct competitor ascending as well.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#972

Post by nunez »

chris_7 wrote: post #753
gregorymichael wrote: post #717

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that service drove by. That's insane.

Also, hope that you are white.

I'm black and never had an issue with hailing a cab for the right years I lived there

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#973

Post by nunez »

Animats wrote: post #41

This may kill Uber. Kalanick is a jerk, but he created that insane valuation. Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. Unless they can find a bigger sucker than the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,[1] they're going broke in 2018. (That "undisclosed amount" in 2017 isn't a significant investment on Uber's scale.) IPO? No way. They'd have to publish audited numbers. What's leaked out i…

Is there another company in history with the valuation that Uber has that went broke because of a CEO change?

My gut tells me that Uber's financial performance won't change

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#974

Post by Qwertious »

mcguire wrote: post #883
wgyn wrote: post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually such a calculation is possible (of consumer surplus), though perhaps some would argue against one or another part of the methodology. See: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/uber-economists-dream/ or http://www.nber.org/papers/w22627 . > So we found that in 2015, if you extrapolate to the whole U.S., we found that the overall consumer surplus added up to almost $7 billion. So people spent about $4 billion on Ub…

Tl;dr: Uber needs to raise its prices.

They really don't. Uber represents itself as profitable for Uber drivers, but this is only true in the short-term. When you factor in car maintenance and depreciation etc, the "profits" that Uber shows you essentially go out the window. It's equivalent to selling a tiny bit of your car's value.

If Uber raised their prices, the average real value would drop from its current real value of $2/hr, to...

Hell if I know, but it could well be negative.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#975

Post by xor1 »

blackrose wrote: post #712
xor1 wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Men hold the vast majority of power in our society. Power isn't based on gender, it's based on wealth. Do you think abuse of power will suddenly end once the majority of wealthy individuals are women instead of men?

Power is enacted through multifarious means, with wealth being one of them. Wealth isn't a requisite for power. Generally in the US, positions of power are held by men, because of (or in spite of) an interconnected system of laws, norms, and a history of (generally) men telling people what to do. And those gender-based ideas enacted in laws and norms and our culture have percolated through our society to affect every…

>Power is enacted through multifarious means, with wealth being one of them. Wealth isn't a requisite for power

Name the other sources of power in the United States in the year 2017. Whatever you can come up with, none of it is as significant as wealth.

>The point is that yes, for these reasons and many others, we should "believe women when they report harassment in the workplace."

You did not answer my question. Do you think abuse of power will suddenly end once the majority of wealthy individuals are women instead of men?

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#976

Post by mathattack »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

As deplorable as much of Uber's behavior was, the Yellow Cab drivers are much worse.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#977

Post by malandrew »

adventured wrote: post #474
baby wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys are talking about Uber dying, but I cannot fathom how this is possible from just the user's perspective. Uber seems to be everywhere, people take Ubers or driver for Ubers every day. How could a company this big fail? Stop growing maybe, but going bankrupt and shutting down?

It's a relished fantasy that Uber is dying or is going to die, because so many people in tech circles hate Uber and Kalanick. It's not actually dying and it's not going to die. Routinely skeptics here will point out that Uber is selling a $1 service for $0.75 (or a similar invented sum). Said skeptics then intentionally, comically ignore that Lyft is and has been doing the exact same thing and has radically less capi…

> Said skeptics then intentionally, comically ignore that Lyft is and has been doing the exact same thing and has radically less capital & valuation to play that game with.

I'm blown away that you have to read more than half way down all the comments to get to this observation. It should be an automatic reply every time someone echoes the fantasy that Uber runs out of money and Lyft is magically left to take over. I don't understand the mental gymnastics and contortions one needs to make to arrive at this absurd idea.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#978

Post by nickpsecurity »

_1qd4 wrote: post #927
geoelectric wrote: post #924

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once upon a time I heard a concept in motorcycling of the sacrificial jerk. This was when you deliberately rode behind someone who rode like an asshole. In turn they provided the upper boundary of your willingness to break the speed limit and for you to ride like an asshole, in hopes that they'd attract the ire of the police instead of you. Leaving any motorcycle safety conversations aside, I think Uber has been the…

I call this the "pace car" when driving. You can do anything the pace car does because he'll get caught first - he sets the pace. Uber is the pace car and the police pulled him over, Lyft saw this and applied their brakes.

One thing to remember is many cops will grab the car nearest to them instead. It happened to me when I was matching pace of traffic while speedometer went out. I was in the back. Cop pulled me over instead of the speeding leader.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#979

Post by DanielLawhon »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

I am opposed to the taxi industry collusion entirely, but Uber/Lyft are creating customer value by subsidizing their transportation costs via investor dollars. While I would love to see the taxi companies forced to reform, Uber will never make a penny.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#980

Post by postITcareer »

This guy may be a huge asshole.. but he is not anywhere close to why Uber has been having problems.. though I hope his resignation helps the company. Obviously his resignation followed immediately by their "180 days of change" campaign, in app tipping etc.. was a well planned move to get some heat off them
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