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Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

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Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis pre-regulation were highly competitive. Each driver did his best to cut costs and raise revenue like: break traffic laws, not pay for insurance, not service their cars, not clean their cars, etc. And since hailing a cab doesn't really give a lot of consumer choice besides what cabbie happens to be driving by at the moment, "competition" is loosely applied at best. Pre-regulation, this would mean chances were fa…

And now the internet and mobile apps has changed all that. Now consumers can pick the best service and simply download a different app, and the services themselves can weed out bad drivers by looking at their ratings.

And the Uber app is on Google Store, store that is owed by co-owner of Uber. This sounds like safe thing for sure!

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#83

Funding rounds are usually preferred stock (though I hear Uber may have done some common stock in the last round, anyone know more?). Preferred stock gets paid out first, so the actual "valuation" here is less meaningful. Preferred investors would still make a profit if Uber exited for $8B instead of 62.5B.

How will this affect the employees?

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#84

Uber is now too big to fail. Possibly the most important company this decade. I never cease to be amazed by their phenomenal execution across the world. I was in Mexico City last week where I truly came to understand the enormous impact Uber as a company has had in these past few years. The service was highly prevalent, popular, and the experience was completely seamless — just like in the US. It barely skipped a bea…

I think Uber will fail, as will all other businesses that profit from bottling up the network effects of information.

Uber is so valuable because they control the network with the most riders and drivers. Their app isn't special. Their network is.

Decentralization shifts the profits of information network effects from companies to the public where they belong. We now have the technology to build decentralized application protocols that don't require a middleman to connect people for a fee. Instead, multiple companies will use the same network and compete to provide the best experiences. The profits to be had from facilitating networks will drop drastically when anyone can compete on a network no one controls.

Billions of dollars disagree with me, but I think those dollars don't see what's coming. Blockchains have kicked off a decentralization renaissance, and it's coming for everyone.

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#85
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now the internet and mobile apps has changed all that. Now consumers can pick the best service and simply download a different app, and the services themselves can weed out bad drivers by looking at their ratings.

And the Uber app is on Google Store, store that is owed by co-owner of Uber. This sounds like safe thing for sure!

Technically, Google and Google Ventures have a Chinese firewall, and Google is competing against its own investment in Uber with its self driving cars.

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd disagree with that. It is providing a means of income for many who are unemployed/underemployed. It's much better than nothing. It probably can be better, but most of these drivers aren't complaining.

> It's much better than nothing. It probably can be better, but most of these drivers aren't complaining. This sounds strikingly similar to the working conditions undocumented immigrants encounter in US agriculture. It's NOT better than nothing. In a proper first world country, you'd have a real safety net for people to fall back on instead of being exploited by shitty technology companies.

It is better than nothing. Consider the most extreme case, child labor (and I don't mean teenagers working at their parent's business). Enough people thought this was not better than nothing and thus pushed to end the practice. In some places this worked (more through economic pressure than laws if memory serves). The children who ended up with nothing found that they were worse off and many turned to the world's oldest profession to make money. They ended up worse off because nothing is worse than being exploited.

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#87
post #36
post #9

Yet mostly still unregulated. I cant get over all the bad stuff they did to get where they are now. I am not defending taxi drivers (it seems that ANYONE against Uber business model = taxi supporter - at least according to majority of A/B society) but Uber is what corporations shouldn't be - breaking laws, throwing money to shut people and lobbying every politician they can. While I understand love by people that use…

It's so easy to never deal with Uber if you don't want to that I don't see the point of regulation.

The regulations often exist because of externalities to transactions. You don't directly have to deal with Uber, but you will still be impacted by their operations if they are in the same city.

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#88

Uber is now too big to fail. Possibly the most important company this decade. I never cease to be amazed by their phenomenal execution across the world. I was in Mexico City last week where I truly came to understand the enormous impact Uber as a company has had in these past few years. The service was highly prevalent, popular, and the experience was completely seamless — just like in the US. It barely skipped a bea…

More Important than ALPHABET?

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#89
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small investment of 2B.

Small as in percent, not dollar amount. :)

At $2B, I think the money talks. There's certainly some threshold where dollar amount matters. It's trivial to throw away a dollar. There are very few places that can afford to be as flippant with $2B. At some point, you're voting with dollars, and the percentage becomes much less relevant.

Re: Uber Raises Funding at $62.5B Valuation

#90
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the Uber app is on Google Store, store that is owed by co-owner of Uber. This sounds like safe thing for sure!

Technically, Google and Google Ventures have a Chinese firewall, and Google is competing against its own investment in Uber with its self driving cars.

Unless Google will provide Uber with its technology and cars - after all Uber is working on drive-less cars.
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