Chthonic_Goat_666 posted:yes in 2014-2016 billions were being poured into Uber... but in the last year or so its all dried up
yeah its obvious that the funding has been drying up, I reckon theres a few reasons, the modst obvious is that Uber has reached that over-ripe stage where its struggling to grow and is butting up against a pushback of labour, regulations, and competition so no one is allthat excited any more, bit like what happened with soundcloud and many other "former unicorns". The Other is that we're in the boom phase of the industrial cycle, production profitability is increesing, investment in production is increesing and capital is becoming scarcer overall, esp with the feds monetary tightening policies, so interest rates will rise and capital is going to start to become more expensive And be more drawn to actual profitable industries. This lines up really nicely with the shift from ubers pre 2016 to post 2016 phase. They did take out a c$1.5 billion loan in 2016 so I can't imagine rising interest rates are going to be plesant for them.
I think you're right to point out that the board conflict is over the IPO, rthose who want to maintain control and try and bring uber to profitability privatly, and those who want to float and become rich af asap before the whole thing crashes. What im not sure about is, presuming uber floats in 2019 w/ its current valuation, they would be swimming in tens of billions of $,and if they could utilise that to estabilsh the monopoly they dream of.
yes, the big question is if they can actually get to an IPO before crash, and if so how much money do they get. let's say they get ~6 billion dollars... well so what, that's enough to lengthen their death rattles for another two years... how long is the charade gonna go. to me this company is the walking dead, i think the only question is - can the large finance capital investor types get away with it and pass it off to smaller investors before the collapse? the early investors are probably fine. the saudis who invested 3.5 billion at the 70 billion valuation are probably fucked either way right? and will this accompany some larger Silicon Valley crisis?
correct me if my thinking is wrong here, ive never really followed this kinda stuff in detail before.
Edited by Chthonic_Goat_666 ()
uber london appeal on december 11. gonna be a busy month for uber.
Chthonic_Goat_666 posted:can the large finance capital investor types get away with it and pass it off to smaller investors before the collapse? the early investors are probably fine. the saudis who invested 3.5 billion at the 70 billion valuation are probably fucked either way right? and will this accompany some larger Silicon Valley crisis?
which makes the softbank investment seem... irational... but imo they must be thinking they too will be able to cash out big come IPO, or they are actual idiots
tears posted:Chthonic_Goat_666 posted:can the large finance capital investor types get away with it and pass it off to smaller investors before the collapse? the early investors are probably fine. the saudis who invested 3.5 billion at the 70 billion valuation are probably fucked either way right? and will this accompany some larger Silicon Valley crisis?
which makes the softbank investment seem... irational... but imo they must be thinking they too will be able to cash out big come IPO, or they are actual idiots
nakedcapitalism were very sceptical that there was gonna be a softbank investment at all... i guess it's "wait and see" for now. this has been in talks for a long time now... (or at least it seems like a long time, idk how quickly these deals are usually done.)
Belphegor posted:I made a 1000$ bet with my friend that Elon Musk would not put a human on Mars before 2049
DPRK will get there first, elon will be busy overseeing private control of the last water reservoirs in the USA.
Belphegor posted:I made a 1000$ bet with my friend that Elon Musk would not put a human on Mars before 2049
you should have expressed this bet in a set weight of gold, 0.776oz for instance, to hedge against currency devaluation
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/19/lyft-raises-1-billion-at-11-billion-valuation-led-by-alphabets-capitalg/
Belphegor posted:I made a 1000$ bet with my friend that Elon Musk would not put a human on Mars before 2049
If you need someone to put that in escrow with, I'm willing to help out.
cars posted:what i wouldn't count out here is that everyone who wants Elon Musk to fly them to Mars is suicidal, and Elon Musk would gladly murder someone for press coverage
really what is the functional difference btwn musk and that danish inventor who just now hacked a woman to bits in his wacky sub
cars posted:what i wouldn't count out here is that everyone who wants Elon Musk to fly them to Mars is suicidal, and Elon Musk would gladly murder someone for press coverage
Chthonic_Goat_666 posted:google invests 1 billion into lyft:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/19/lyft-raises-1-billion-at-11-billion-valuation-led-by-alphabets-capitalg/
if people are sane this is the last significant amount of money thats ever gonna be invested into rideshare.., and its being done to spite uber haha
tesla q3 earnings (aka loses) out tomorrow. also uber might be getting more regulated/kicked outta brazil
Uber’s executive spokesman for Brazil, Fabio Sabba, told Reuters he was punched in the face by a taxi driver as he gave a media interview inside the Senate building.
haha
tesla lost 1.4 billion in q3 2017 - more than expected.
looking through the letter to sharehlders a bit... some of this accounting type stuff makes my head hurt. like whats "Goodwill and intangible assets, net" and why is it worth 417 million dollars.
anyway, tesla now has 3.5 billion dollars to burn through.
tesla shares are down 3% (doesn't seem like much?)
here's a nakedcapitalism article. i guess the 1.4 billion number i said before isn't loses? then what's "free cash flow"? the jargon is confusing...
edit: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freecashflow.asp
ah. makes sense...
Edited by Chthonic_Goat_666 ()
We build globally, we live locally. We harness the power and scale of our global operations to deeply connect with the cities, communities, drivers and riders that we serve, every day.
We are customer obsessed. We work tirelessly to earn our customers’ trust and business by solving their problems, maximizing their earnings or lowering their costs. We surprise and delight them. We make short-term sacrifices for a lifetime of loyalty.
We celebrate differences. We stand apart from the average. We ensure people of diverse backgrounds feel welcome. We encourage different opinions and approaches to be heard, and then we come together and build.
We do the right thing. Period.
We act like owners. We seek out problems and we solve them. We help each other and those who matter to us. We have a bias for action and accountability. We finish what we start and we build Uber to last. And when we make mistakes, we’ll own up to them.
We persevere. We believe in the power of grit. We don’t seek the easy path. We look for the toughest challenges and we push. Our collective resilience is our secret weapon.
We value ideas over hierarchy. We believe that the best ideas can come from anywhere, both inside and outside our company. Our job is to seek out those ideas, to shape and improve them through candid debate, and to take them from concept to action.
We make big bold bets. Sometimes we fail, but failure makes us smarter. We get back up, we make the next bet, and we go!
thats gonna make for one massive motivational poster
graph of tesla's shares over a 5 year period so you can see how small the recent drop is. long way to go yet.
https://sputniknews.com/science/201711091058938136-uber-nasa-flying-cars-uber-air-2020/
"UberAir will be performing far more flights over cities on a daily basis than has ever been done before. Doing this safely and efficiently is going to require a foundational change in airspace management technologies," Holden said.
In a special effects video shown to conference attendees called "Closer Than You Think," a woman is shown going to an Uber Skyport on the roof of a tall building. The woman requests an UberAir flight through her app and gets on a piloted electric plane with three other passengers. The plane takes off vertically like a helicopter.
if i was an investor would i be pissed off that they were wasting money producing PR about this fantasy? or would i be happy that they were talking themslves up for a future (hopefully...) IPO?
http://www.gocatch.com/driver/resources/driver-app/
You get GoPoints for every job you do, but when there is a short fare or if it is very busy, then you can get extra GoPoints. You can see the GoPoints for every job before you accept.
The number of GoPoints you have determines your status level and that gives you priority access to on-demand jobs and Advance Bookings. Drivers get rewarded for doing short fares and picking up passengers when it is busy.
GoCoins are created every time a passenger pays through GoCatch. The GoCoin is then shared between the passenger and the driver. The split is determined by an algorithm that factors in the size of the fare and current level of demand.
In early 2018, you will be able to make purchases and collect rewards with GoCoins.
*nodding intently with a thousand yard stare* uh huh. i seee. fascinating.
Uber Technologies Inc will continue to lose money in its home market for at least the next six months as rival Lyft Inc poses a fierce competitive challenge, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said on Thursday in his first public comments since taking the top job at Uber two months ago.
“The U.S. is very, very competitive right now between us and Lyft, so I don’t see the U.S. as being a particularly profitable market for the next six months,” said Khosrowshahi, who made the comments at the New York Times DealBook conference in New York, which was also streamed online.
A spokesman confirmed that Uber will be unprofitable overall, although some cities may break even.
Khosrowshahi was tapped to run Uber in August after leading travel-booking site Expedia Inc (EXPE.O) for 12 years and is expected to bring a less abrasive approach than his predecessor, Travis Kalanick. On Thursday, he described progress in talks with regulators in London, who in September refused to renew Uber’s operating license.
Uber has often said its heavy losses were necessary to establish itself in new markets. But the lack of profits in its home market, where it has been operating for eight years, and others such as Southeast Asia, raise questions about the company’s business model, which relies on heavily subsidizing both riders and drivers to keep prices low using the billions of dollars in venture capital the company has raised.
Khosrowshahi’s comments are also a testament to Lyft’s growth. The smaller ride service, which started in 2012 and only operates in the United States, has expanded to more than 350 cities across 41 states this year and last month raised $1 billion in a financing round led by Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O).
For a brief period last year, Uber was profitable in the United States and Canada, the company said.
Uber seems to often make comments about being profitable in particular cities, or being profitable for a brief period (how brief? 10 minutes?) ... which makes me wonder - are you allowed to straight up lie about that kinda stuff if you're a private company?
AZ_IZ_OT posted:I cannot imagine how fucked the US labor market will be once driving becomes reliably automatable. Fucking hell.
Do you think it will? Most of the guys pushing self driving cars the hardest seem like scam artists, and I think it will be very difficult to get it to work reliably in all situations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Road_Trains_for_the_Environment
but when it will become popular is another question.
i guess you'd have to see how much money was being poured into the R&D for each project. im sure uber is taking autonomous cars quite seriously - but i'd be surprised if they were putting any significant money into flying car shit besides the money used to produce the videos and PR spin.