Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#11

Post by ProfessorLayton » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:13 PM UTC

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

I don't know if I'd call it disgusting, price discrimination is a well established business practice, and your comment suggests that you continue to use Uber's service despite those practices — validating the discriminatory pricing they're giving you.

It is your prerogative as a consumer to check multiple car hailing apps and pick the one that suits you best.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#12

Post by jsonne » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:15 PM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #6

This plus the news that Waymo is starting its autonomous ride-share service next month is a one-two punch for Uber this week. Might be one of the largest unicorns to die in our generation.

You don't get to the size they do and simply die. They'll be acquired and vertically integrated in a way that lets them be competitive on price. You can break even on the ride if you make it up in harvesting data, showing in car advertisements, having sample products placed in cars, and a million other "fremium" style revenue harvesting techniques.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#13

Post by MetalGuru » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:16 PM UTC

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

Let's be honest, if anything better came along, I wouldn't look back.

What about Lyft?

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#14

Post by nightfly » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

Honestly what do you expect, them to keep losing money on every ride? The pricing has been a lie to kill off the competition, but they can't keep it up forever.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#15

Post by komali2 » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

MetalGuru wrote: post #13

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

Let's be honest, if anything better came along, I wouldn't look back. What about Lyft?

Lyft is great. More expensive than Uber but none of the dark pattern bullshit. Every price I've paid had felt "fair."

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#16

Post by sytelus » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:20 PM UTC

femto113 wrote: post #10

Uber's been buying revenue at the cost of margin in at least two ways by shifting rides to Pool (where they can declare the entire ride's cost as revenue, not just their cut), and ramping up Uber Eats (where they take a percentage of the total cost of the food and may actually lose money on the ride). Neither strategy can continue indefinitely.

Is there a choice given other well funded startups are doing same (Lyft, Grab etc)?

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#17

Post by Ftuuky » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:20 PM UTC

Speaking as a infrequent user (1-3 times per month) in Lisbon, Portugal, I can't choose Uber anymore. There are so many other apps providing the same service with cheaper prices (some of them such as Taxify do not have surge pricing) and better drivers. The drivers' quality declined a lot: sometimes they don't speak portuguese or english and if they notice you're drunk they try to scam you (leave you in some random spot far away from destination and gaslight you with "nah mate you put the wrong address, but try again and I'll get you hoe"). I'm not that drunk and I'm not stupid.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#18

Post by Analemma_ » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

I hate to say I called it but... I called this years ago. Earlier in the decade, even on HN, people were raving about how much better Uber was than taxis because “the cars are so clean!”, and I kept saying, “You know this is temporary, right? And that Uber is only better in this regard because the drivers and cars are new?”

Ride-hailing takes an incredible toll on cars, and with Uber pushing more costs into drivers that might otherwise be borne by the taxi company, there was no way the original standards of cleanliness would last forever. It all regresses eventually to “minimum amount of maintenance that people will still accept” and so Uber and taxis will be basically indistinguishable given a few more years. Hired cars are a commodity, after all, and this is what always happens to commodities.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#19

Post by CydeWeys » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #11

keyle wrote: post #4

Side note, I'm getting fed up with Uber... I'm a decent user, I use it 1-2 a week. Drivers have become worse. They used to have clean cars and were of all ethnicity. There also used to be a lot of women drivers. Now it's basically taxi drivers with their mate's cars. Cars are now often dirty, greasy interiors, dirty outside and bad smell. And as soon as you have a 'usual' route, or you use the app a lot, you get char…

I don't know if I'd call it disgusting, price discrimination is a well established business practice, and your comment suggests that you continue to use Uber's service despite those practices — validating the discriminatory pricing they're giving you. It is your prerogative as a consumer to check multiple car hailing apps and pick the one that suits you best.

I'd sooner just catch a cab than have to open up multiple different apps and compare prices all the time. I always know exactly what I'm paying with a cab, and it's no hassle.

Re: Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

#20

Post by asteli » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

crunchlibrarian wrote: post #3

Uber’s sales are dramatically slowing even as the ride-hailing company is spending more to fuel global growth, particularly in its food delivery business. Revenue growth of 38 percent in the third quarter was almost half of what the growth rate was six months earlier, when the company was negotiating a $9.3 billion investment led by SoftBank Group Corp. Brutal opening paragraph

It's a strange world we live in when people speak poorly of 38% revenue growth. To me, that seems like a staggeringly huge growth rate. I looked up the numbers independently to double check, and yep.

63% revenue growth between Q2'17/Q2'18, 38% between Q3'17/Q3'18.

If my own 9 year old company was growing 38% YOY I think I'd be very very happy.