Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 291 posts

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

#231

Post by rimliu »

woolvalley wrote: post #147
brockwhittaker wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would normally agree but the difference could be around $5 each way for 250 work days a year. A few thousand dollars a year is quite a lot.

Cars cost more than that. If I had a choice between a second commuter car or $200/month of ubering, the ubering would be cheaper. Car ownership in the bay is something like this: * $100-500/month car payment or depreciation * +$100/month in gas * $60-120/month in insurance * $100/month in amortized maintenance costs = $360/month minimum base cost And if you work/live in SF or need to go over the bridge: * $100-200/mo…

Wow. My costs: 300€/month payment which includes insurance. 60-80€ a month for gas. And mind you it’s expensive there ~1.2€/liter ~30€/month mainatence. 2/3 of it comes down to change and storage of winter/summer tires (winter tires are mandatory).

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

#232

Post by solatic »

btilly wrote: post #52
georgeecollins wrote: post #23

I don't know what to say about this because as a lifelong value investor I cannot accept the valuation of Uber based on it's earnings. But the same logic held me back from investing in Facebook and Google, which did not make any sense to me at the moment of their IPO. How do I decide what Uber's earnings will be in five years?

Warren Buffett's advice on this is simple. If he doesn't understand it, he doesn't invest. No matter what the rest of the world thinks. He famously missed the dot com boom. And in the middle of it, gave a private speech about exactly why, about how few of those companies were likely to be around in a few years even if the internet were exactly as successful as hoped for. He was widely derided as being behind the time…

The way to reconcile this is to compare it to poker - the way to gauge your performance is not by the final outcomes, but by how good your decisions were. Worrying about missing the boat on exceptional investments like Facebook and Google is irrational if your overall investment strategy is sound. It's just not worth it to second-guess yourself for folding pre-flop if your hand only turned into a winner on the river.

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

#233

Post by orbifold »

masonic wrote: post #222
stephencoyner wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Riders won big. The ability to order a car and get a ride in minutes is now engrained into society. Who can imagine major metros in the US without ride share? The continued capital injections and subsidized prices have been great for consumers.

One needs to include in their calculation of winning and losing whether their private data means anything to them. Uber, for example, sucks from your phone access to your camera, all of your contacts , your location at all times, your microphone at all times, and the ability to dial or text from the phone itself. At the same time, all of the people in your contacts have their privacy productized as well, involuntaril…

You can order an Uber from Maps and don’t have that problem.

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

#234

Post by [deleted] »

da02 wrote: post #198
therein wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The taxi experience in cities other than NYC, Chicago, and SF got a million times better. Before Uber in a city like Nashville you call for a taxi and maybe one shows up at some point. Since Uber you can reliably get a ride whenever you want. And that's not even talking about discrimination. That is a good point I hadn't considered until now. I remember back in my college days in Champaign, IL right before Uber's d…

What do you mean by, "and only then this challenge came to an end."? You simply stopped calling him?

[deleted]

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

#235

Post by grvdrm »

Axsuul wrote: post #210
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…

The consumers won. Before Uber, traveling abroad in another country meant getting scammed by taxi drivers. After Uber, there is now a safe, trustworthy, and familiar mode of transportation when in a foreign place. Note: Lyft is only domestic.

Incredibly useful point. It's easy to look at these companies through the U.S. lens but they have changed the game for international travel as well.

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

#236

Post by samsolomon »

makeitstop wrote: post #215
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…

“desperately” Are you sure you’re outside the bubble? Because the taxi industry could have done with some improvement, but it didn’t “desperately” need “disruption”. People got from a to b just fine, and drivers got paid. The only thing that desperately needs disruption is the destructive influence SV has on societies that were doing just fine before its “disruption”.

Are you the one in a bubble? The taxi industry was an absolute mess outside a few select cities—at least here in the US.

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

#237

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #194
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In any city where the economics of car vs uber work out in favor of uber, then necessarily the economics of train + bus vs uber work out in favor of train + bus.

That’s clearly false unless you value your time at $0

Bus + train is much faster than Uber, for example in NY. You’d take an Uber in order to have the luxury of riding alone or with a small group instead of a crowd, or because you have a large suitcase, but absolutely not because it’s faster. This is no different than the same tradeoff for taxis.

And the context of this subthread is about Uber as a full solution for commuting. So my original claim still holds. If things like always riding alone or always transporting luggage are impacting your daily commute decision and making you believe that paying the premium for Uber is cost effective, then necessarily it’s even more cost effective for you to buy and maintain your own car, and satisfy those unusual commute preferences in a way that amortizes the costs of operating your own car even in a dense urban area.

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

#238

Post by steve_musk »

therein wrote: post #189
treis wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> The taxi experience in cities other than NYC, Chicago, and SF got a million times better. Before Uber in a city like Nashville you call for a taxi and maybe one shows up at some point. Since Uber you can reliably get a ride whenever you want. And that's not even talking about discrimination. That is a good point I hadn't considered until now. I remember back in my college days in Champaign, IL right before Uber's d…

As a recent UIUC grad, it takes a few minutes to get an Uber there now.

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

#239

Post by bernardlunn »

Hmm “Last year, bankers vying to lead the company’s initial public offering told Uber the market could value it at $120 billion.” Translation is “tell punters what they want to hear”. Reality, 10x revenue means high quality revenue and that is far from proven.

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

#240

Post by vishnugupta »

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.

Absolutely! Even in cities like Bangalore, far away from SV but still big, Uber (and Ola) created a new market altogether. In Bangalore for instance, hiring a taxi was an amazingly painful experience; in terms of lack or convenience as well as exorbitant price. Until Uber/Ola came along I had hired a taxi maybe 5 times in 9 years. Since then I've almost stopped using my cars. Uber/Ola has become my daily commute as well as for any errand etc.

Another aspect that's not discussed much is the drastic reduction of cognitive load. Earlier moving around in a city would require lot of planning - route planning, parking etc,. All of that is now a thing of history. And don't get me started on how ridiculously inefficient is car ownership and how mentally and physically taxing commute driving is!

Post reply on HN