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Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

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Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#41

Post by tomp »

morganvachon wrote: post #35
DigitalSea wrote: post #26

Umbrellas at the ready, the mess is going to be big when this bubble eventually bursts. Sure, I see the value of services like Uber, but there are so many ridesharing services in the market offering a decent product, Lyft arguably has a better app. While I don't doubt its usefulness, I don't think Uber is worth $40b. Especially considering it was only valued at roughly $17b in the summer which was what, like 6 months…

> I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general. I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Ube…

Hm... it might be a stupid question, but by "ridesharing service", do you mean Uber, or something else? To me, Uber doesn't seem a ridesharing service, merely a Taxi on demand with a nice phone+GPS app.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#42

Post by icebraining »

untog wrote: post #39
jhonovich wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presuming you can block your drivers from working for rival services simultaneuosly.

Hardly difficult. Once you have a monopoly position you just add a clause to the terms and conditions that you may only use Uber if it's the only service you're signed into at the time.

But how do you get the monopoly position in the first place? Also, that assumes the law doesn't invalidate those clauses.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#43

Post by toomuchtodo »

morganvachon wrote: post #35
DigitalSea wrote: post #26

Umbrellas at the ready, the mess is going to be big when this bubble eventually bursts. Sure, I see the value of services like Uber, but there are so many ridesharing services in the market offering a decent product, Lyft arguably has a better app. While I don't doubt its usefulness, I don't think Uber is worth $40b. Especially considering it was only valued at roughly $17b in the summer which was what, like 6 months…

> I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general. I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Ube…

Yes. Uber can fail, but ridesharing/e-hailing/etc needs to succeed against entrenched interests while working towards sensible government regulation.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#44

Post by mliker »

morganvachon wrote: post #35
DigitalSea wrote: post #26

Umbrellas at the ready, the mess is going to be big when this bubble eventually bursts. Sure, I see the value of services like Uber, but there are so many ridesharing services in the market offering a decent product, Lyft arguably has a better app. While I don't doubt its usefulness, I don't think Uber is worth $40b. Especially considering it was only valued at roughly $17b in the summer which was what, like 6 months…

> I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general. I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Ube…

Those are pretty strong words, "a cancer with douchebags at the helm." Any personal experiences that motivated these words other than joining in the hatred hive mind fostered by the media?

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#46

Post by freehunter »

applecore wrote: post #2

It's a popular meme in tech journalism that Uber is "under attack" for its nefarious business practices, but how much has this sense pervaded outside the tech bubble?

My wife (mid-20s) and her friends were going to take one for the first time after I told them about it as they were headed to Chicago for the weekend. They all got scared and took a cab instead because they had never heard of Uber and didn't trust it. Nothing I could say would convince them otherwise, they need to hear about it from other sources to think it's legit.

People just don't know about Uber. They're not recognizable enough (no advertising).

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#47

Post by untog »

icebraining wrote: post #42
untog wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly difficult. Once you have a monopoly position you just add a clause to the terms and conditions that you may only use Uber if it's the only service you're signed into at the time.

But how do you get the monopoly position in the first place? Also, that assumes the law doesn't invalidate those clauses.

As I said in the original post, by using VC cash to undercut competition and drive them out of business.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#48

Post by morganvachon »

tomp wrote: post #41
morganvachon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general. I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Ube…

Hm... it might be a stupid question, but by "ridesharing service", do you mean Uber, or something else? To me, Uber doesn't seem a ride sharing service, merely a Taxi on demand with a nice phone+GPS app.

I thought that was the official name for Uber/Lyft/etc.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#49

Post by sz4kerto »

venomsnake wrote: post #13

That's almost 3 whatsapps. Congratulations to the team. Although lately I feel like Dr. Evil and his 1 million ransom when I see that kind of valuations thrown around.

Well, not exactly. Whatsapp has been sold for $19B, this is a _valuation_ of $40B. I think selling something for $19B is bigger than being valued at $40B and getting $1.2B in funding.

Huge numbers though, I can't realistically appreciate these amounts.

Re: Uber Confirms New $1.2B Funding Round, Looks to Asia for Expansion

#50

Post by fernandotakai »

erichurkman wrote: post #18
jld wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber spends a lot to acquire new drivers. They hire staff to recruit them, give them a new phone, and give the driver a signing bonus.

The drivers pay for the phones now, by the way, at $10/week deducted automatically from their fares. They also recently released the driver app for iOS and Android for personal phones, too, so they (and the drivers) can forgo some of that cost. They've also changed their take rate on drivers. New drivers IIRC are at 25%, older partners are at 20%, but maybe this varies on city.

> The drivers pay for the phones now

depends on the market. here in são paulo, drivers told me that they gave them phones + gave them a "working rate" (as in, as long as you are online and working you will get a per-hour-rate even if you don't get any passengers).

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