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New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

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Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#21

Post by otakucode »

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomorrow someone could launch a fully peer to peer version of the software that runs in distributed fashion across all devices it gets installed upon, cutting them completely out of the loop, making rides cheaper and making drivers more money.

And if Uber perfects self-driving cars if they are deluded enough to think they can replace their human drivers with a roving fleet of such... oh how childish and stupid that would be. I would give it 10 days before someone would introduce GUber which lets individuals with self-driving cars to time share them out when not in use via an app, destroying Uber swiftly and making every self-driving car they own (and maintain) a liability.

The only way I could see them remaining interesting for more than a couple more years would be if they developed an awesome self-driving car - and gave it away for free. With anyone who accepted one obligated to permit the thing to be time-shared out by Uber to provide rides when its not being used with X number of hours of availability given per month. That would be hard to compete with, whether through peer to peer or individuals renting their self-driving cars...

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#22

Post by [deleted] »

thematt wrote: post #16
bhouston wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At much as you may hate Uber it is an unstoppable juggernaut. Being profitable is not impossible and settling everything is just a question of money, and fairly small sums at that. It may not be worth $100B, but it is going to be worth a ton.

It's far from unstoppable. They might have market share in the US because of their first mover advantage, but they ceded to Didi in China and to Yandex in Russia.

[deleted]

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#23

Post by soperj »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

Their product is automated dispatch. Dispatch is what other cab companies do too.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#24

Post by neosat »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

That's incredibly naive. There's a lot of accumulation of design and technology knowhow in various capabilities like dispatch, operations etc.

"Tomorrow someone could launch a fully peer to peer version of the software that runs in distributed fashion across all devices it gets installed upon, cutting them completely out of the loop, making rides cheaper and making drivers more money."

Why haven't they if it is as easy as you make it sound? It is definitely plausible that someone will do this but it is FAR from easy and won't happen 'tomorrow' as you put it.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#25

Post by CodeWriter23 »

uberemployee wrote: post #15

Guys this is somewhat fake news. The question was what his thoughts were on IPO. He basically said it's up to the board, but 18 to 36 months seemed reasonable. It wasn't like he's actually planning on IPOing in 18 months, it was an off-the-cuff response and gave a ballpark figure. That's all, don't read too much into it he hasn't even officially started yet.

The real news is this is precisely why TK was ousted. He was categorically opposed to taking Uber public, and that went against the wishes of big investors who want an IPO payday.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#26

Post by ProAm »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

If Uber loses it's ride providing capability, there is a TON of money in licensing the use of their software/infrastructure. They could layoff 80% of their staff and live off a pile of money they could bring in licensing software to other transportation related companies.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#27

Post by moxious »

uberemployee wrote: post #15

Guys this is somewhat fake news. The question was what his thoughts were on IPO. He basically said it's up to the board, but 18 to 36 months seemed reasonable. It wasn't like he's actually planning on IPOing in 18 months, it was an off-the-cuff response and gave a ballpark figure. That's all, don't read too much into it he hasn't even officially started yet.

It was known previously that elements on the board wanted IPO, and this is something you'd have to get ultra clear before you'd be given the job. I hope.

So while the timeline can't be precise, I'm guessing this isn't floating a trial balloon, this is whats happening.

There are a lot of people waiting for their liquidity.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#28

Post by alaskamiller »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

You're being silly.

> Tomorrow someone could launch a fully peer to peer version of the software that runs in distributed fashion across all devices it gets installed upon

Yeah, that already exists. It's called the phone app. You use it call a cab company for a ride.

> cutting them completely out of the loop, making rides cheaper and making drivers more money.

Rides don't get cheaper without Uber, they'll get more expensive. Pricing has been artificially deflated using VC money. Without that you get back to cab prices again.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#29

Post by nicolashahn »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

I thought that was always their long term strategy. They're taking a loss with human-driven cars. I thought their plan was to spend their way into market dominance, then cut out the drivers once their self-driving cars are ready to go and finally start turning a profit.

Re: New Uber CEO Says Company Could Go Public in 18 Months

#30

Post by koolba »

otakucode wrote: post #21

Do not invest in Uber. It would be downright stupid to do so. What is their product? Providing rides? No, that's what drivers do. Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing. The problem with this is that those servers and that app? The thing that collects the money for Uber? No one needs Uber for that. Tomor…

> Ubers product is running a bunch of servers, a mobile app, and bearing the first-mover disadvantage of fighting with all the regulators about ridesharing.

So if we /s/ridesharing/home renting/ then we shouldn't invest in AirBnB either?

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