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Uber Revenue Slows as Quarterly Loss Surges to $1.1B

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

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need 1 billion per quarter in "fremium" revenue to get breakeven, though. Thats _plenty_ of in car ads.

Not really. They lose money by sponsoring some markets, they can just stop doing that and become less aggressive. They made a choice to lose money and grow rather than break even and slow down.

Yes, but then the "growth story" ends aburptly, and their 120B valuation they aim to get on IPO stop making sense. As the "value stock" their price is probably closer to 12B than 120B.

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

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they do

I just tried it out and there is a "Confirm" button but I still don't know how much it'll cost to go to the airport.

It shows the price after the Confirm button, on the screen where you select what type of car you want.

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

#65
post #17

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 s…

How did the scammy uber drivers not get kicked off the platform for poor ratings? If you take me to an address that isn't the one I entered you can't tell me I entered something wrong.

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

#66

Uber doesn't have much of a moat or lock-in effect. I just switched one day from being a frequent Uber rider to 100% using Lyft, simply because I don't like Uber's behavior as a company. The prices are so close it doesn't make any practical difference to me. Anecdotally, among my friends I also see Lyft becoming the default, and sometimes price-checking with Uber. If Waymo or whoever came out tomorrow with a cheaper/…

The extent of their lock-in is that of any C2C company: the marketplace. Can one side be confident there are enough on the other side? And then it becomes about brand recognition and marketing. (And in this particular case, the Uber brand has some issues....) No different than, say, consumer rental companies like Airbnb.

Most Uber drivers are on Lyft as well AFAICT (where possible). So the marketplaces are basically identical.

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

#67

Uber doesn't have much of a moat or lock-in effect. I just switched one day from being a frequent Uber rider to 100% using Lyft, simply because I don't like Uber's behavior as a company. The prices are so close it doesn't make any practical difference to me. Anecdotally, among my friends I also see Lyft becoming the default, and sometimes price-checking with Uber. If Waymo or whoever came out tomorrow with a cheaper/…

The extent of their lock-in is that of any C2C company: the marketplace. Can one side be confident there are enough on the other side? And then it becomes about brand recognition and marketing. (And in this particular case, the Uber brand has some issues....) No different than, say, consumer rental companies like Airbnb.

Does this change when the two options are perfect substitutes?

As a rider, there's no "cost" to having both apps, so I'll just check both.

Similarly, as a driver, I'll just sit with both apps open and see which one I get a rider on.

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I'm reluctant to use Lyft is that they do not say beforehand how much my ride is going to be. Edit: I stand corrected. Their UI mislead me because for airport rides the price is only shown after you hit a Confirm button, but that does not order the car as I thought, only takes you to the next screen.

They do that now.

They have been for years. Ever since I started using it.

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

#69
post #8

Their prices are often worse than yellow cabs in NYC. They act like locals won't be able to tell but it's pretty obvious when it's a $10 more ask at a time that isn't even busy and there are yellow cabs everywhere.

I had a yellow cab driver claim just last month that his credit card machine was broken, after a ride from the airport into Manhattan. I told him too bad, plastic is all I got, and wouldn't you know it miraculously the machine worked when he tried it (with a sour face). As a cherry on top he then tried to charge me more than the fixed rate set for the airport fares. So taking a yellow cab in NYC still absolutely suck…

I'm not defending yellow cabs here. There's a reason ride-share has taken so much of their market.

I'm just pointing out how ridiculous Uber is by trying to charge me significantly more than a yellow cab to get somewhere when I can ballpark the cost pretty easily. It's just a very poor longterm business decision.

Only now do I try other services because I am suspicious that Uber is trying to rip me off.

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

#70

Uber doesn't have much of a moat or lock-in effect. I just switched one day from being a frequent Uber rider to 100% using Lyft, simply because I don't like Uber's behavior as a company. The prices are so close it doesn't make any practical difference to me. Anecdotally, among my friends I also see Lyft becoming the default, and sometimes price-checking with Uber. If Waymo or whoever came out tomorrow with a cheaper/…

The reason I'm reluctant to use Lyft is that they do not say beforehand how much my ride is going to be. Edit: I stand corrected. Their UI mislead me because for airport rides the price is only shown after you hit a Confirm button, but that does not order the car as I thought, only takes you to the next screen.

I stand corrected. Their UI mislead me because the price is only shown after you hit a Confirm button, but that does not order the car as I thought, only takes you to the next screen.
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