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Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

nytimes.com

11–20 of 516 posts

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#11
post #2

No doubt they are struggling to show a path to profitability, but $3.9B of that is a one-time recognition of all their stock comp which makes look much worse than it should (Assuming that a 1.3B loss is more "normal")

I don't know how the headline could be anymore objective than this. And the loss numbers not withstanding, a company bleeding money like a unicorn growing only 14% in revenue is pretty bad no matter how you slice it.

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#13

Uber and lyft are both on the way down. The price at which they need to operate to be profitable is not a price that most americans are ready to pay. As simple as that. For now they delay this reality by subsidizing rides in order to generate business. In some cities like San Francisco, most incentives were removed and among my friends we all stopped using Uber (unless we really have to). It simply became way too exp…

Could you elaborate how much were fares before they removed subsidies and after?

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#16
Interesting stock chart: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/UBER?p=UBER - set it to 5 days.

Apparently Lyft upped its guidance, and Uber stock took off today; it was up 8.25% percent from yesterday. As of right now, it's now down 10% off closing to 38.66, a value it hasn't had since... last Wednesday morning.

Disappointing if you're a holder, sure, but not as catastrophic as you'd think if you only read this news.

(To the extent I have bias here, it is bias against trying to judge stock performance only by reading about its massive jumps up or down. Uber I'm not a particular fan of but I can't say I'm all that personally passionately against it either. I don't mean this as attack or defense, only a perspective on the news that I think is closer to a truth.)

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#18
post #5

Uber laying off 400 two weeks ago felt like a leading indicator that they were going to deliver a weak quarter, I'm surprised this wasn't priced into the stock (which is now down ~10% after hours after finishing today's session at +8%). What was the market expecting? (1) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/technology/uber-job-cuts....

The same thing it was expecting from Beyond: world domination.

(kidding)

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#19
post #13

Uber and lyft are both on the way down. The price at which they need to operate to be profitable is not a price that most americans are ready to pay. As simple as that. For now they delay this reality by subsidizing rides in order to generate business. In some cities like San Francisco, most incentives were removed and among my friends we all stopped using Uber (unless we really have to). It simply became way too exp…

Could you elaborate how much were fares before they removed subsidies and after?

I can't speak to SF, but here in Chicago, they have been gradually getting higher each year. I have consistently taken an Uber to work every morning for about 5 years now, and I used to pay $5-7 for the ride, but now it is $9-12.

I will say though, the huge benefit now is their rewards have a "price protection" [1] for some tiers that allow for a cap on that ride price, so I think it can no longer go above $10.99 or something. That has helped a ton from it getting higher. But that's only available for some of the higher tiers in their rewards program, I believe.

[1] https://help.uber.com/riders/article/price-protection-on-a-r...

Re: Uber Posts $5.2B Loss and Slowest Ever Growth Rate

#20
post #13

Uber and lyft are both on the way down. The price at which they need to operate to be profitable is not a price that most americans are ready to pay. As simple as that. For now they delay this reality by subsidizing rides in order to generate business. In some cities like San Francisco, most incentives were removed and among my friends we all stopped using Uber (unless we really have to). It simply became way too exp…

Could you elaborate how much were fares before they removed subsidies and after?

I used to take Uber pools at around 4-5$ in San Francisco. Now it rarely is below 10$, which is too expensive for a service that is essentially very slow. Most of the time I go faster by walking or taking one of those electrical scooters.
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