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Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

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Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#161

Post by NoodleIncident »

cwkoss wrote: post #120
jartelt wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More accurate pickup times would really help. I've rushed outside numerous times after being given a 2 minute ETA. Pretty much every time I end up waiting outside for 5-10 more minutes after the ETA changes to a longer time. If I knew the ETA was accurate, I would be more vigilant about being roadside at the correct time.

I have never had an Uber arrive as fast as the estimate. Usually takes about twice as long as app displays when requesting the ride. Also, there is absolutely no recourse if a driver starts driving in the opposite direction of you. I had a 3 min estimate, then driver drove 15 mins away. Called driver and he had the audacity to ask me to cancel the trip (so I'd still be charged). Was 30 minutes late and had to contact…

This happened to me days ago and I wasn't charged for the cancellation, as far as I can tell. Not sure if it's because I called and cancelled sooner, there's no reason to wait to call if you see them driving the wrong way. Either that, or they detect a driver not making progress towards the pickup location when they decide whether to charge for the cancellation.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#162

Post by capsulecorp »

blunte wrote: post #145

Maybe because I'm outside the unicorn bubble I can't see the magic, but I find something very warped about a business strategy that combines stratospheric valuation, intentional regulatory non-compliance, perpetual capital injections, service misrepresentation, and unprofessional corporate behavior... and results in massive financial losses year after year. When I try to balance the elements, it frankly looks like an…

Progress won. It is infinitely easier, more affordable, transparent, convenient, and the overall experience of riding uber is hands down better than any Taxi experience I've ever had by a an extremely long shot, anyone I've spoken to agrees. Sure there are still improvements, but all in all, as a frequent user, I have to say getting a ride is hands down better with uber than before it.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#163

Post by uptownfunk »

I didn't see any talk of self-driving cars here. I think they're coming sooner than we think, and I suspect not having to pay drivers has been baked into the valuations by some of the firms providing those sweet sweet capital injections.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see Tesla enter this space, given their advanced self-driving capability (frankly the one that has come closest to a normal consumer as myself).

Re: Lyft vs Uber, I go for the cheapest usually, even though I know there are other differences. Many people who really care about the difference are mostly drivers. Many friends of mine who use both apps mainly use it to price differentiate.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#164

Post by sjjshvuiajhz »

sjjshvuiajhz wrote: post #155
clairity wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "...it’s not is the cheapest and most convenient climate-controlled shelter for the city’s destitute mentally ill." i can appreciate this point, but you're still insinuating that destitute people are bad, rather than realizing the complexity of the human condition as embodied in that other living being. why not try to find and express some empathy, or even just some sympathy, for these folks? is there any gain for…

After being assaulted by that stranger I thought about him a lot: 1) He probably has been abused and harmed many times, perhaps in his childhood. 2) He probably expects the worst from people, and thinks that everyone is out to get him. 3) He may be suffering from schizophrenia and literally thought I was attacking him somehow (I was sitting across from him with earbuds in reading a kindle). 4) Becuase there is not en…

And to expand on that a bit:

It seems that transit in the Bay Area serves multiple purposes.

1) Getting you from point A to point B.

2) Mobile climate-controlled shelter for homeless people.

My claim is that purpose 1 is at odds with purpose 2. I’m all for solutions to the problem of not enough shelter. I don’t think the SFMTA is the solution, or if it is, then we should accept that companies like Uber are going to take its market share for purpose 1.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#165

Post by ithinkinstereo »

capsulecorp wrote: post #162
blunte wrote: post #145

Maybe because I'm outside the unicorn bubble I can't see the magic, but I find something very warped about a business strategy that combines stratospheric valuation, intentional regulatory non-compliance, perpetual capital injections, service misrepresentation, and unprofessional corporate behavior... and results in massive financial losses year after year. When I try to balance the elements, it frankly looks like an…

Progress won. It is infinitely easier, more affordable, transparent, convenient, and the overall experience of riding uber is hands down better than any Taxi experience I've ever had by a an extremely long shot, anyone I've spoken to agrees. Sure there are still improvements, but all in all, as a frequent user, I have to say getting a ride is hands down better with uber than before it.

Well it's easy to produce "progress" when you're willing to operate with massive losses fueled by other people's money. Take any customer experience that sucks and inject billions of dollars into it and lo and behold the experience improves mightly.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#166

Post by cameldrv »

nostromo wrote: post #24
liquid153 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has happened to me, I was uber pissed. The Uber driver waited less no more than 2mns Max.

It's fairly rude to make them wait at all. They're not being paid while they're waiting for you.

Somebody is going to wait for somebody. When you order the Uber, you don't know exactly when it will arrive, so if you don't want to make the driver wait, you have to go to the curb ahead of time and wait there. The implicit assumption is that the driver's time is more valuable than yours.

I would very much like to have an option for the driver to simply be fairly compensated for their waiting time so that if I want to leave at 12:00, I can order it at 11:45, and they'll just wait until I'm ready to go. Higher end traditional car services will often show up half an hour or more before the scheduled time so that they can be absolutely sure to be ready when their customer wants to go. It would be nice to be able to get this level of service from Uber (for a fair price) without the driver being upset about waiting.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#167

Post by simple_phrases »

capsulecorp wrote: post #162
blunte wrote: post #145

Maybe because I'm outside the unicorn bubble I can't see the magic, but I find something very warped about a business strategy that combines stratospheric valuation, intentional regulatory non-compliance, perpetual capital injections, service misrepresentation, and unprofessional corporate behavior... and results in massive financial losses year after year. When I try to balance the elements, it frankly looks like an…

Progress won. It is infinitely easier, more affordable, transparent, convenient, and the overall experience of riding uber is hands down better than any Taxi experience I've ever had by a an extremely long shot, anyone I've spoken to agrees. Sure there are still improvements, but all in all, as a frequent user, I have to say getting a ride is hands down better with uber than before it.

>Progress won

That's a unnecessarily simple reading of this situation, don't you think?

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#168

Post by Apocryphon »

ithinkinstereo wrote: post #165
capsulecorp wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Progress won. It is infinitely easier, more affordable, transparent, convenient, and the overall experience of riding uber is hands down better than any Taxi experience I've ever had by a an extremely long shot, anyone I've spoken to agrees. Sure there are still improvements, but all in all, as a frequent user, I have to say getting a ride is hands down better with uber than before it.

Well it's easy to produce "progress" when you're willing to operate with massive losses fueled by other people's money. Take any customer experience that sucks and inject billions of dollars into it and lo and behold the experience improves mightly.

It's a little like saying the theater-going experience has been improved thanks to MoviePass.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#169

Post by bduerst »

blunte wrote: post #145

Maybe because I'm outside the unicorn bubble I can't see the magic, but I find something very warped about a business strategy that combines stratospheric valuation, intentional regulatory non-compliance, perpetual capital injections, service misrepresentation, and unprofessional corporate behavior... and results in massive financial losses year after year. When I try to balance the elements, it frankly looks like an…

Passengers won, since most rides were (or still are) subsidized from venture capital raised by the company. It's almost like a wealth distribution of it's own, through the value of on-demand transportation.

You could also talk about how it disrupted the taxi medallion market, which was an older solution to the trust problem of getting into a car with a stranger, but for many cities that wasn't really in need of disruption, just optimization.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#170

Post by ummonk »

jmalicki wrote: post #117
joshe wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why make a driver wait?

Because they're waiting for me a 3 minute walk away from the location where I requested they pick me up?

Yeah, a lot of them don’t stop at the location you requested.
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