Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
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Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
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Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#2Giving things away at <cost is good for growth and not much else.
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#3How are Lyft's financials? Are they losing money just as fast or what? If they aren't, seems like the answer is that yes, Uber can deliver.
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#4How are Lyft's financials? Are they losing money just as fast or what? If they aren't, seems like the answer is that yes, Uber can deliver.
Probably not great, but what if the model of both businesses just isn't actually viable without massive injections of funds?
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#5Giving things away at <cost is good for growth and not much else.
Well, the idea is that they kill off every competing service and then can raise prices. Also that they can beat everyone else to self-driving cars and eliminate the cost of labor. Other articles on NC have called the feasibility of both of those into question.
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#6Giving things away at <cost is good for growth and not much else.
Well, the idea is that they kill off every competing service and then can raise prices. Also that they can beat everyone else to self-driving cars and eliminate the cost of labor. Other articles on NC have called the feasibility of both of those into question.
I think this depends on your definition of "competing service." Some think "Taxis/Limos," others expand to public transit, and others expand to personal car ownership in general.
We shall see, but until them I'm definitely enjoying the VC subsidized taxi trips :)
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#7How are Lyft's financials? Are they losing money just as fast or what? If they aren't, seems like the answer is that yes, Uber can deliver.
Probably not great, but what if the model of both businesses just isn't actually viable without massive injections of funds?
Agreed. The dominant strategy seems to be to undercut competitors until they are driven out of business, and then you can raise prices. However, raising prices then gives opportunity for a new ride-sharing service to come in and say that they can compete by offering lower prices for a period of time...
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, the idea is that they kill off every competing service and then can raise prices. Also that they can beat everyone else to self-driving cars and eliminate the cost of labor. Other articles on NC have called the feasibility of both of those into question.
I think this depends on your definition of "competing service." Some think "Taxis/Limos," others expand to public transit, and others expand to personal car ownership in general. We shall see, but until them I'm definitely enjoying the VC subsidized taxi trips :)
Well, I'm sure Uber would like to replace as many of those as possible, but even the minimal version of replacing traditional livery services may not be possible.
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#9How are Lyft's financials? Are they losing money just as fast or what? If they aren't, seems like the answer is that yes, Uber can deliver.
Probably not great, but what if the model of both businesses just isn't actually viable without massive injections of funds?
Then apparently it is impossible to run a SaaS app connecting drivers and passengers for a ~25% cut of current prices.
That seems pretty unlikely. We need to move on from this unsupportable "ride sharing pricing is unsustainable" narrative.
Re: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Even After 4Q Cost Cuts, Uber Lost $4.5B in 2017
#10"Uber released new financial data this week, showing full year 2017 GAAP operating losses of $4.5 billion, and an operating margin of negative 61%."
Finally, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles numbers from Uber. And they're awful. Lots of startups whine about having to produce GAAP numbers (all US public companies have to) because they can't exclude "extraordinary expenses". But GAAP numbers are real, not "earnings before all the bad stuff" numbers.
Right now, Softbank is keeping Uber alive. They put in $10 billion at the end of last year.[1] Softbank is now Uber's largest shareholder.
[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding_rounds/...