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Uber Q3 Results

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Re: Uber Q3 Results

#31

Post by ENOTTY »

ganitarashid wrote: post #17

Having new “one-time” charges every quarter means those are not one-time charges. They’re part of the business, which means the business doesn’t work. One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty. For a company that sells a utility (get me, or my food, from A to B) rather than an experience (like a cool vacation in a unique mansion), I will always pick the cheapest option. Whether that’s Uber or…

They do have a loyalty program now, which is designed to drive brand loyalty. Whether it actually works is up to the market.

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#32

Post by kkotak »

georgeecollins wrote: post #10

You have to go past a lot of non-GAAP accounting to see that they actually lost $1.1B last quarter, almost all from operations. There is a nice chart showing all the things they are taking out to get their adjusted EBITDA of -0.5B. It seems like they are always taking out a bunch of one time charges to claim that there core business would be profitable. But every quarter they have those charges. I don't understand ho…

You're an idiot if you lose $100 from your pocket, but you're a genius if you lose -$1.1B of other people's money every quarter.

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#33

Post by ganitarashid »

ENOTTY wrote: post #31
ganitarashid wrote: post #17

Having new “one-time” charges every quarter means those are not one-time charges. They’re part of the business, which means the business doesn’t work. One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty. For a company that sells a utility (get me, or my food, from A to B) rather than an experience (like a cool vacation in a unique mansion), I will always pick the cheapest option. Whether that’s Uber or…

They do have a loyalty program now, which is designed to drive brand loyalty. Whether it actually works is up to the market.

A low price is not loyalty

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#34

Post by seltzered_ »

ganitarashid wrote: post #33
ENOTTY wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have a loyalty program now, which is designed to drive brand loyalty. Whether it actually works is up to the market.

A low price is not loyalty

I believe the person is referring to ‘uber cash’ as an loyalty incentive, paired with changes to the uber credit card coming next year which will only give uber cash (akin to airline miles).

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#35

Post by kbenson »

ganitarashid wrote: post #17

Having new “one-time” charges every quarter means those are not one-time charges. They’re part of the business, which means the business doesn’t work. One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty. For a company that sells a utility (get me, or my food, from A to B) rather than an experience (like a cool vacation in a unique mansion), I will always pick the cheapest option. Whether that’s Uber or…

The only way Uber works as a service is if you leverage all the people that want to be a taxi driver for a few minutes, so are will g to take less than a living wage because it's extra income that they trade time (and a vehicle) that they weren't utilizing much already during that time, which allows rates lower than taxis.

The only way Uber works as an investment (at the level they've accepted money) is if they somehow kill off traditional taxis and all competition and become the only game in town (where "town" is basically the whole U.S.), and charge taxi rates or above.

Given that the cost of entry I to the market (at least for customers willing to see the cheaper rates) is essentially zero as by the nature of the business your drivers can drive for anyone, making Uber work as an investment doesn't look very likely to me. Not that I'll feel all that bad when those people lose money. I'll just call that karmic justice for investing in a company with such a horrible record (I believe if Uber didn't have billions invested by the elite they would have been shut down or heavily regulated for bad business practices years ago).

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#36

Post by DuskStar »

ganitarashid wrote: post #33
ENOTTY wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have a loyalty program now, which is designed to drive brand loyalty. Whether it actually works is up to the market.

A low price is not loyalty

Uber Rewards [0] is, though. Basically airline status.

0: https://www.uber.com/us/en/u/rewards/

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#37

Post by duud »

ganitarashid wrote: post #17

Having new “one-time” charges every quarter means those are not one-time charges. They’re part of the business, which means the business doesn’t work. One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty. For a company that sells a utility (get me, or my food, from A to B) rather than an experience (like a cool vacation in a unique mansion), I will always pick the cheapest option. Whether that’s Uber or…

I disagree that they have zero brand loyalty. Yes it is a price sensitive industry but you're doing something right when your brand becomes a verb. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and I generally pay the extra few dollars for Uber rather than dealing with Didi, Taxify et al's inferior interfaces and slower pick up times. I think Uber take 28% commission vs Didi's 15% and that is reflected in the pricing eg. a $25 Didi fare is usually $30ish on Uber.

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#38

Post by thewhitetulip »

Narkov wrote: post #27
thewhitetulip wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wouldn't that violate accounting practices if they took one time charges? That's what constitutes fraud right?

They need to provide GAAP numbers and so long as everything else is clearly labeled (i.e. "non-GAAP"), there's no problems.

Ah.

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#39

Post by fancyfish »

For those interested in the world of non-GAAP accounting, there are a wealth of resources (particularly from the Big 4 accountancies who are eager to consult on such matters). Broadly, the use of non-GAAP has grown to a point where the SEC ramped up enforcement measures (sending letters to companies regarding their presentation of non-GAAP measures)[1]. Particularly, GAAP measures need to be presented "with equal or greater prominence" to their non-GAAP counterparts.

From a Deloitte piece[2]:

"A study published by Audit Analytics noted that 97 percent of S&P 500 companies used non-GAAP measures in earnings releases during 2017. Further, the number of non-GAAP measures used per filing has almost tripled from 2.35 in 1996 to 7.45 in 2016.

In addition, a study published by FactSet indicated that for the second quarter of 2018, 77 percent of the companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average reported non-GAAP earnings per share and 61 percent of these companies reported non-GAAP earning per share that exceeded GAAP earnings per share."

[1] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/02/07/sec-scrutiny-of-n... [2] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/audit/articles/a-roadm...

Re: Uber Q3 Results

#40

Post by cavisne »

ganitarashid wrote: post #17

Having new “one-time” charges every quarter means those are not one-time charges. They’re part of the business, which means the business doesn’t work. One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty. For a company that sells a utility (get me, or my food, from A to B) rather than an experience (like a cool vacation in a unique mansion), I will always pick the cheapest option. Whether that’s Uber or…

At least for me uber has huge brand loyalty, it’s sitting in the dock of my iPhone.

If I need to go somewhere, or get home, Uber has never let me down. Likewise with food delivery, I certainly have been let down on that but Uber does the best job of letting me track the order and get a refund if needed.

Sure Lyft is an alternative, I have it on my phone but simply never use it.

It’s incorrect that nothing has changed about the cost of a ride. Taxi medallions used to be 500k-1m and require essentially taking out a mortgage. Now they are worth effectively $0.

And cost was never the core issue with Taxi’s, it was the unpredictability of the cost, having to pay in cash because the drivers incentive is to skim from the owner, having to find one or call for one, having to put your trust in a random driver in a random country with no idea if you are going the right way.

Look to NYC where they seem to have set the goal of making Uber as expensive as possible (10s of dollars in random fees per ride). It’s still popular - in a city with some of the best taxi options.

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