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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

#211

Post by mattnewton »

cynicalkane wrote: post #144
Androider wrote: post #30

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/…

Converse to this, I get a lot of bad behavior when I try to book Uber, especially late at night or in odd areas. Drivers who cancel, intentionally drive in the wrong direction to force you to cancel, who don’t wait or drive to the wrong place to pick you up, who don’t know where to go, who are rude, who refuse to turn off music... I started using Uber because it was worth paying more to not deal with taxis. Now Uber…

I have experienced the drive in the wrong direction for >10 minutes uber driver and it is very frustrating. They must get dinged massively for cancelations?

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

#212

Post by shubhamjain »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #58

That is not a happy balance sheet. They have raised over $24B, then they shifted around the cap table when Soft Bank came in[1] where they valued the company at $48B. I have never played poker where the lowest valued chips were a million dollars but it has to feel like that to senior management at the company right? And their investors, they have serious money in the pot too. It feels like they have managed to create…

At this point, I would have zero doubts about betting against Uber. The fact that company with ginormous loss continues to pursue loss-making ventures is beyond me. Food delivery was already an established market in India, and UberEats had no competitive value compared market leaders when it came--except, of course, zero delivery fees. The market itself is extremely challenging and not even the biggest companies have profitability in sight, and yet for Uber it somehow fits in their long term vision.

Wake up, Uber management. No company, however appealing, can continue to raise money making a billion in quarterly loss.

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

#213

Post by lotsofpulp »

Balgair wrote: post #169
cm2012 wrote: post #51

I am a pretty loyal Uber user, and probably spend around $400 a month with them. But... I was stuck out in the cold in the boonies of long island recently, and Uber kept bugging out and not finding rides since I was fairly rural. I downloaded Lyft for the first time and it found me a ride instantly. I'm going to have to use them more often. Just my random anecdote.

$400/mo. Woah! Why not lease a car at that rate? Leases go for ~$150/mo there.

Driving has significant liability costs and you can’t spend your time driving doing other things you can as a passenger.

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

#214

Post by dzhiurgis »

Androider wrote: post #30

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/…

Except Lyft has probably 1% of coverage that Uber has.

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

#215

Post by hornetblack »

Androider wrote: post #30

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/…

Depends, where I am there's Uber or Traditional Cabs. My experience phoning for a cab is pretty pleasent though (quicker than using uber). Although their app is unusable.

(When it comes to dodgey companies CabCharge is pretty terrible)

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

#216

Post by DenisM »

nemo44x wrote: post #69
Androider wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Did you know that Google Maps shows both Uber and Lyft price at the same time? Very handy for comparison.

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

#217

Post by autokad »

kevin_b_er wrote: post #151

Oh don't you know they want to IPO to cash out on gullible public investors based on hype. With accelerating losses as revenue grows means each dollar of revenue has negative return. More revenue means more negative return. They only way to win is if they monopolize a segment enough that they can jack up prices to make up for the sustained losses. Other ways this looks like Groupon. The more they sell, the more they…

i dono about Groupon. with 'their more they sell more they lose' balance sheet, I thought they would go out of business in 2012 but they are still here, so maybe I was wrong about them?

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

#218

Post by dzhiurgis »

gjreda wrote: post #67
paulddraper wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Sure, if you never left your country. I certainly didn’t want to register to Italy’s official taxi app - don’t wanna trust them my CC nor my life to horrible service I’ve received (same price as Uber, horrible car)

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

#219

Post by dzhiurgis »

TylerE wrote: post #98
gjreda wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Makes you wonder why no one has built an app that interfaces with all of them, and finds you the cheapest rate, while taking a kickback.

Such API’s should be mandated by government - after all road surface is limited resource hence its a natural monopoly.

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

#220

Post by majani »

TylerE wrote: post #98
gjreda wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Makes you wonder why no one has built an app that interfaces with all of them, and finds you the cheapest rate, while taking a kickback.

Uber forbids price comparison in their TOS and actively threaten to shut down price comparison sites that use their API: https://www.wired.com/story/uber-and-lyfts-never-ending-ques...

I guess the plan for Uber was always to use low prices to win the market and jack them back up later. Price comparison would interfere with this plan.

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