Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#1

Post by prostoalex » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 12:03 AM UTC

Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014
recode.net

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#2

Post by icpmacdo » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:12 AM UTC

I dont think Uber is going anywhere soon. It has such a strong brand. Everyone I know trusts uber a lot more than there local cab companies.

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#3

Post by puranjay » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:28 AM UTC

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I dont think Uber is going anywhere soon. It has such a strong brand. Everyone I know trusts uber a lot more than there local cab companies.

I do wonder what will happen once Uber starts charging market rates. Right now, your ride is subsidized by Uber. Once it comes time to turn on the profits, you'll have to pay more - substantially more in some markets.

Will you still use Uber? Probably. But many who started using Uber instead of, say, taking their own car or using public transport, just might go back.

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#4

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:29 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#5

Post by everly » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:33 AM UTC

puranjay wrote: post #3

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I dont think Uber is going anywhere soon. It has such a strong brand. Everyone I know trusts uber a lot more than there local cab companies.

I do wonder what will happen once Uber starts charging market rates. Right now, your ride is subsidized by Uber. Once it comes time to turn on the profits, you'll have to pay more - substantially more in some markets. Will you still use Uber? Probably. But many who started using Uber instead of, say, taking their own car or using public transport, just might go back.

I suspect that the data they possess on usage rate during surge pricing will be extremely useful for making those projections.

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#6

Post by rtpg » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:39 AM UTC

Wait, so Uber spent $900 million dollars? I thought that considering they offload so much of the costs of running of the business( EDIT: through having drivers buy the cars, for example), they wouldn't have such high operating costs.

Though according to this[1] article, Uber's at 3000 employees worldwide. What are those employees doing?

EDIT: For reference, Greyhound's 2014 operating costs were 600 million pounds (50 million in profit).

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/uber-new-hq/#.bb69xm:poPo

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#7

Post by danieltillett » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:40 AM UTC

puranjay wrote: post #3

icpmacdo wrote: post #2

I dont think Uber is going anywhere soon. It has such a strong brand. Everyone I know trusts uber a lot more than there local cab companies.

I do wonder what will happen once Uber starts charging market rates. Right now, your ride is subsidized by Uber. Once it comes time to turn on the profits, you'll have to pay more - substantially more in some markets. Will you still use Uber? Probably. But many who started using Uber instead of, say, taking their own car or using public transport, just might go back.

This is actually something that is pretty straightforward to find out (assuming you actual want to know the answer). You just jack up the prices in a single market and see how much price elasticity there is.

My feeling is that the taxi-like market is a commodity market, but if I was going to invest at a $50 billion valuation I would want Uber to tell me that have looked into this in detail and can provide me with some hard data.

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#8

Post by empressplay » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:42 AM UTC

So what's the model? Put the taxis out of business and then jack up the fares to what the taxis were? Who's winning, then, exactly? Not the consumer...

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#9

Post by danieltillett » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:44 AM UTC

everly wrote: post #5

puranjay wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder what will happen once Uber starts charging market rates. Right now, your ride is subsidized by Uber. Once it comes time to turn on the profits, you'll have to pay more - substantially more in some markets. Will you still use Uber? Probably. But many who started using Uber instead of, say, taking their own car or using public transport, just might go back.

I suspect that the data they possess on usage rate during surge pricing will be extremely useful for making those projections.

Yes it should be possible to modelled this out from the surge data. Of course you have to be careful doing this sort of modelling since you might find your model won’t support a $50 billion valuation.

Re: Leaked Uber financials from 2012 to 2014

#10

Post by austenallred » Thu, Aug 06, 2015, 5:46 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #6

Wait, so Uber spent $900 million dollars? I thought that considering they offload so much of the costs of running of the business( EDIT: through having drivers buy the cars, for example), they wouldn't have such high operating costs. Though according to this[1] article, Uber's at 3000 employees worldwide. What are those employees doing? EDIT: For reference, Greyhound's 2014 operating costs were 600 million pounds (50…

Despite popular belief, apps and communities don't run themselves. Uber is scaling at an ungodly speed, and they're hiring a ton of people to do so. Seriously, look at how many jobs they're hiring for right now: https://www.uber.com/jobs/list (then realize they're doing this in hundreds of cities simultaneously, in addition to the hundreds they're already in).

I'm actually blown away that they're losing so little, given the amount of revenue they're bringing in. Those are, despite what it may seem, really good numbers. If they can reach scale and capture the market (not trivial)... wow.