Uber - why is it not making money? (1 Viewer)

[boots11234]

If I am correct Uber loses a ton of money every year. Why is this?  I mean all they do is provide an app and collect dough yet they cannot turn a profit. Why is this?  Seems they would have little to no overhead as the drivers are all independent. Please explain. 

 

[eoMMan]

If I am correct Uber loses a ton of money every year. Why is this?  I mean all they do is provide an app and collect dough yet they cannot turn a profit. Why is this?  Seems they would have little to no overhead as the drivers are all independent. Please explain. 

R&D, driver rewards/payments, stock based compensation, marketing, etc.

https://www.businessinsider.com/where-uber-spends-its-money-lost-5-billion-second-quarter-2019-8#research-and-development-306-billion-26-billion-from-stock-based-compensation-3

 

[TLEF316]

I'm fairly confident the entire thing is just a silicon valley Ponzi scheme designed to generate wealth for the early investors. 

But then again, that's how I feel about pretty much all tech companies

 

[ILUVBEER99]

The Amazon strategy.  Take losses for 10+ years until the competition has to give up.

 

[dickey moe]

The Amazon strategy.  Take losses for 10+ years until the competition has to give up.

Only during a period of historically cheap credit would this be possible. Countless zombie companies are being kept alive by this.

 

[urbanhack]

I'm fairly confident the entire thing is just a silicon valley Ponzi scheme designed to generate wealth for the early investors. 

But then again, that's how I feel about pretty much all tech companies

Agree, but there is a clear difference between this biz model vs other tech like b2b saas.  E.g. salesforce and HubSpot 

 

[Mister CIA]

If I am correct Uber loses a ton of money every year. Why is this?  I mean all they do is provide an app and collect dough yet they cannot turn a profit. Why is this?  Seems they would have little to no overhead as the drivers are all independent. Please explain. 

Maybe, Uber wants to be the next POTUS.

 

[BassNBrew]

Maybe, Uber wants to be the next POTUS.

Hadn't heard uber was running a vacation home scam.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

If I am correct Uber loses a ton of money every year. Why is this?  I mean all they do is provide an app and collect dough yet they cannot turn a profit. Why is this?  Seems they would have little to no overhead as the drivers are all independent. Please explain. 

The ultimate idea is/was for Uber to get into freight shipping, food delivery (obv), etc. etc. Which is a huge market. I think prong #2 was to eventually dump all the humans and use self-driving cars, further reducing overhead.

That plan has...hit some snags: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/former-uber-engineer-anthony-levandowski-could-face-decade-in-prison-for-stealing-secrets-from-google

 

[DocHolliday]

The Amazon strategy.  Take losses for 10+ years until the competition has to give up.

That's a bod strategy Cotton.    Let's see if it pays off.  

 

[culdeus]

Idea is to bleed everyone dry.  It's even having an effect on airlines.  Airports are relying less and less on car parking fees because Uber is cheaper and are passing it along to the airlines.  Tons of downstream effects like this have just started.