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Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

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131–140 of 146 posts

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#131
post #5

how many people use taxi these days? and how often? $17B, it got to be crazy.

Hi - I'm one of the people that uses Uber and loves it. I live in a big city, Chicago, and guessing from your statement you don't live in a taxi city. Let me tell you why I love uber and hate taxis (or why I only take Uber Taxi). 1) I used to travel for work, and for me that meant getting a 5:45am cab ride from downtown Chicago to the airport. Now, I'm sure you're aware that Chicago is freezing during the winter mont…

I feel your pain, but you completely left out the option of the train. I usually use it to get to the airport. It is slower, but it costs a lot less and runs 24 hours a day. If you're lucky, the train will even take you up the escalator.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#132
post #23

The "this valuation is crazy" and "this proves a bubble" comments are filling up my Twitter feed and HN, but I couldn't disagree more. Call me crazy, but I think this valuation is completely fair. For a few reasons: Uber has serious revenue. They do more trips in San Francisco than taxis do. This isn't a pie-in-the-sky "there will be money there, I'm sure of it" thing. They bring in billions, and they're starting to…

They will be successful in San Francisco, of that I have no doubt. From what I understand the taxi market there is horribly broken, Uber saw a gap in the market and leapt at it. The mistake, IMO, is assuming that they will be able to replicate that in other cities. In NYC you can get a taxi 90% of the time by holding your hand up in a street corner. At peak times that's more difficult, but that's also when Uber has s…

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Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#133
post #96

From Uber website: "Get a ride that matches your style and budget" In the low budget/style area, they are competing with the public transportation system? Do they have all this financial/momentum muscle? And in the high budget/style, they are competing with rich people who can own their own BMW/Ferrari with a private driver? Who "needs a ride" and chooses an expensive "SUV". How could this thing make a difference in…

there are a lot of rich people without cars (a lot of manhattan). i know tons of people who hate cabs and can't really justify a full-time driver--these people take a lot of ubers. also, cabs can only take 4 people at a time. the ability to call a large car when going out has a made a huge difference.

I would like to know how 'many' people are in this pool, and $ per user for Uber.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#134
Who really uses cab/taxi services? I grew up in Toronto, Canada (not a big city compare to NYC, but still pretty big) and now lives in SF Bay Area. I took public transportation (sure, they sucks sometimes) , riding bikes, and I own a very basic car (Toyota), I have never really have a need to use a taxi service in probably 17+ yrs of my life so far. I really not sure how this is improving people's life because I don't see a problem with the way I lived now.

What are some advantages that I really need a taxi service? Sorry, I don't drink, so no need to worry about drink-and-drive.

I would like to see someone here can enlightening me.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#135
post #108
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming your figures are correct, $11bn in annual revenue allows for a much higher valuation than $17bn. One of the main methods of valuing a company is the "multiples" approach [1], which values the company at a multiple of it's annual revenue, with the multiple typically falling between 5-15. A commonly used multiple is the price to earnings multiple of the entire industry, which is absurdly high for major tech co…

> Assuming your figures are correct, $11bn in annual revenue allows for a much higher valuation than $17bn. [...] > So if we want to use the average P/E ratio, we can say that a very very very rough price for the entire Taxi/Limo market is $150bn. P/E is price/earnings ratio, it's not calculated using revenue. Earnings is revenue less expenses. So if the taxi industry in general is operating at a 10% profit margin, t…

Ah, you're absolutely right. My mistake.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#136
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are expanding pretty fast; have you heard of a (not so) far away country called Colombia? Well, they are already here; as they will be in all the nations that allow them to. Getting banned hurts them, but there is no universal ban in sight.

They are expanding on regulation arbitrage. Being able to bend and/or break the rules by using contractors. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/uber-faces-rebukes-... "Oh lets operate in Paris and not pay the licensing fee for a taxi service." Etc. They've been completely and/or partially banned by more markets, larger markets than the entire country of Colombia at this point. It is the same thing as AirBNB. You…

> Maybe this speaks to my bias against people who bend reasonable rules for profit.

I share the same "bias" (I would actually refer to it as "normal thinking", but hey…) and think it's a shame people in Silicon Valley have collectively decided it's fine to break the law as long as you can get away with it and get a high valuation out of it.

To take one example, AirBnB has clearly had a negative impact on many local rental markets via units being taken off the normal market and instead being turned into unlicensed hotel rooms, but their response has been basically complete and utter defiance to anyone to stop them, and this attitude gets applauded here on HN and elsewhere.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before 2012 (when I started using Uber), I took a cab (outside of NYC) maybe 5 times in a year. Today, I take an uber 5 times a week. This is anecdotal but I am sure that's the market growth investors are looking at.

So is Uber 50x cheaper than taxis, or is it cheaper than your own car/pubic transport? Note: I pay a flat monthly fee for transport (public) around £1200 a year. Trans, trams, buses.

Price is not the issue for me. It's the service quality and convenience. I used taxi's to get home from bars and I would say 50% of the time I would have a problem (card machine doesn't work, don't go to my address, won't accept 3 people). Uber eliminated the friction.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#138
post #39

Prepending Edit: If you're reading this and have a lot more familiarity in how investments of this kind are made, and what kinds of things these investors are thinking, I really am making this post looking for education. I didn't finish college, and don't know a lot, but I'm trying. If you'd rather not stir the pot by talking here, my e-mail is in my profile. The one thing that makes me skeptical about this, is histo…

Assuming your figures are correct, $11bn in annual revenue allows for a much higher valuation than $17bn. One of the main methods of valuing a company is the "multiples" approach [1], which values the company at a multiple of it's annual revenue, with the multiple typically falling between 5-15. A commonly used multiple is the price to earnings multiple of the entire industry, which is absurdly high for major tech co…

Or in this case... about 100 times their revenue

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#139
post #5

how many people use taxi these days? and how often? $17B, it got to be crazy.

Hi - I'm one of the people that uses Uber and loves it. I live in a big city, Chicago, and guessing from your statement you don't live in a taxi city. Let me tell you why I love uber and hate taxis (or why I only take Uber Taxi). 1) I used to travel for work, and for me that meant getting a 5:45am cab ride from downtown Chicago to the airport. Now, I'm sure you're aware that Chicago is freezing during the winter mont…

Hailo also operates in Chicago.

Re: Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding

#140
post #58
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/06/0... Given they are getting banned in entire markets, I think this evaluation is crazy. UPS, Fedex, etc already have software just as advanced for planning their routes. Uber isn't going to magically beat them somehow. Heck, part of why they lean on the USPS is there is some economics in delivery outside of big cities that create a situation where it makes no…

>Given they are getting banned in entire markets isn't it the best confirmation of how big deal they are? Their value isn't in the "logistics math" or other hi-tech mumbo-jumbo. Their value is in the successful building of the momentum, a huge storm wave which can break through existing regulations which hasn't changed in a hundred years. An ability to change political things to be in your favor is one of the most im…

I'm still unconvinced that Uber's market is one where the first mover has much of an advantage. What prevents those with more marketing and logistics resources from sitting back and waiting for Uber and Lyft to force the social/legal change that creates the industry before entering the market themselves?

Right now, the deep pockets want nothing to do with that business because the future is uncertain and there's a large liability risk. One of many probable ends for Uber and Lyft is being sued out of existence ala Napster. But if Uber succeeds in proving the market, competitors will follow. What does Uber have that's hard to match? Their technology can be replicated by those that know how to build software. Their drivers will bolt to any competitor that will pay them more. Their customers will bolt to any service that's cheaper. Without some sort of network effect, they'll either fail in their legal challenges or they'll find themselves in a race to the bottom and see their margins evaporate.

Worse yet, they could see themselves competing against companies that can bolt the Uber revenue source onto their current product. Facebook Transport, which leverages your network of friends for stuff like trusted reviews from people you know. Domino's ToGo...a ride home and a pizza. Amazon Local Lift...handle your grocery shopping on your way home. And that's not even considering if Google gets to self-driving cars first and decides to compete rather than license/sell the technology to Uber.

At the moment, Uber and Lyft feel like the penguins that gets pushed into the water to test whether there's a Shark or Whale nearby. They're either going to get eaten, or everyone else is going to follow them into the water.

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