Dear Uber,
You don't need one thousand and five hundred developers to keep a mobile app going.
SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
61–70 of 143 posts
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If Uber is limited to US and Canada I fervently hope it's the US only. I will talk to my MLA and show him a nice collection of news about Uber in hope they will not allow them to operate their scam in Vancouver.
How is it a scam? It gave me a ride to the airport for $26 bucks. I took a cab once and it cost over $50 bucks. My need some tweaks here and therem but overall its a great service for customers
The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc. All not being paid.
Uber is no ride share service, it is a test project to figure out if modern society will accept a larger lower income working class without any social security, and that is what all investment firms bet on.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If Uber is limited to US and Canada I fervently hope it's the US only. I will talk to my MLA and show him a nice collection of news about Uber in hope they will not allow them to operate their scam in Vancouver.
Is Uber a scam, or is ride share, in your opinion? Ride share is a great servicce for people and increases safety in many areas.
Uber is (in my opinion) a scam, and (objectively) not ride sharing.
'Ride sharing' does not even begin to describe Uber. There is no sharing going on whatsoever. It's a taxi company that just ignores the law on principle to gain an advantage, while also spending VC money like crazy in a very illegally anticompetitive manner.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, they're investing at the 70B valuation and buying existing shares through the tender offer, at a discount. Given that the latter shares are being sold by existing stockholders, it doesn't seem fair to call this a down round. I'd expect their valuation to remain the same.
If the valuation didn't change, and the common stock is fairly priced, then we should stop calling the valuation $70B. Under that model, Uber was never worth $70B.
i agree with you, but its the way that private company valuations work in the valley. If you read an article that says company X raised a round at Y valuation, its always based on the preferred price.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#65If you can't read this article but you have a Facebook account then you can create this as a bookmarklet:
javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber trumpets it and crows when they come close to profitability in markets. You're nuts if you think that Uber is profitable in North America. There is clearly some profitable ride-sharing business in the general Uber model, but it remains unclear that there is a profitable ride-sharing business with enough gross revenue to justify a 10x unicorn business. Uber's main problems with profit margins aren't Uber Eats or…
I never said their valuation is justified, just that their business model works. The costs of providing their booking service is small compared to the revenues it generates. The only question is how much do they have to spend on end user marketing and driver recruitment.
Their business model isn't just the cost of booking, because they aren't a booking company. They're a taxi company. The cost of doing business involves running taxis. And that is not profitable for them.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#67A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…
The success of Didi in China has been interesting. They have largely co-opted the taxi pools in Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen by allowing you to bid/pay the driver to pick up riders. It has changed dramatically in only a few years. Although locals tell me it is illegal you can wait over an hour and a hundred green-lit taxis before one will stop to pick-up someone without an app that is willing to bid a few yuan. Train st…
This highlights why many governments dislike ride hailing services.
As riding hailing becomes dominant (with their rise only being enabled by being able to skirt regulations) it creates a transportation system where one needs a mobile phone to participate. This excludes low income persons and persons with low technical literacy.
The way that ride hailing slices away only part of the population and ignores the rest is highly undesirable for governments which are required to provide transportation solutions for all persons.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#68A few observations: Softbank has stakes in Didi, Didi has stakes in Uber, Uber has stakes in Didi, with this Softbank got stakes in Uber. Uber is mostly successful in North America and Southern Americas. Didi is obviously successful in China and will expand to Southern Americas soon. Europe is not an important market for these companies. Too much regulations and good public transportation won't allow them to thrive.…
Uber's relative failure in the highly deregulated Swedish taxi market to me indicates that their competitive advantage is avoiding regulations. So it's not clear why "to much regulations" would be a problem for them.
Failure ? I remember taking Uber everywhere in Stockholm
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is it a scam? It gave me a ride to the airport for $26 bucks. I took a cab once and it cost over $50 bucks. My need some tweaks here and therem but overall its a great service for customers
The missing $24 were health insurance, car insurance, pension payments for the driver etc. All not being paid. Uber is no ride share service, it is a test project to figure out if modern society will accept a larger lower income working class without any social security, and that is what all investment firms bet on.
Additionally taxis are regulated so as to create a reasonably universally publicly accessible transportation system. That is that you can call a cab and it will pick you up and you will have an understanding of the price you will pay.
In an Uber/Lyft ride hailing system cabs can only be hailed via an app, and will only accept the most profitable rides. Surge pricing may also make the ride only affordable to the relatively wealthy. In such a system, low income persons in relatively remote areas lose transportation options.
Part of the extra price of cabs is the price of creating a transportation system that is accessible to everyone, not just the most wealthy.
Re: SoftBank Succeeds in Tender Offer for Large Stake in Uber
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but scale of countries like Bahrain doesn't make a dent. Also, in each of those countries Uber has a competition that is usually more successful than Uber. That's not true in Brazil and Mexico and that's why Didi is rushing there!
In my experience, the Didi app is inferior to Uber's. Not sure how they would manage to outcompete.
It might not be a fair comparison since didi never had an English interface.