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Leaked Documents Suggests Uber Is 'Losing Millions'
New submitter DaneTerry88 points out an article about the financial state of Uber, poster child for the sharing economy. Documents leaked to Gawker seem to indicate the company is still far from profitable, despite its popularity. "They show operating losses of more than $100m (£65m) in the second quarter of 2014, albeit coupled with steady growth in revenue." Uber did not deny the leak, but pointed out they are still building the business, which requires a lot of investment. The company has been valued as high as $50 billion, and only a few days ago received a $100 million investment from Microsoft.
The big difference is that Amazon has pretty obvious infrastructure investments, what does Uber have? Aerons, hookers & blow?
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Uber has a ton of infrastructure investment - it's mostly been clearing the way for the company to exist, legally speaking. They've already shown they can grow profits regularly where they are allowed to operate, so that is a way bigger deal than people are allowing for.
Not quite sure how they can be "growing profits" if the company is not yet operating in the black to start with.
User's infrastructure was MUCH HARDER to build out than Amazon's, which is just code and servers... Uber had to deal with real people - and not just people, but government officials.
"Amazon is just code and servers" -- I'll remember that next time the I hear about their sprawling warehouses around the world. And I guess they were able to begin operations in all those places without talking to a single government official, right? Not to mention the ~150,000 people they employ -- directly with W-2's, not as "contractors" as Uber likes to use to skirt many employment regulations. And that drone thing? Nah, FAA just preemptively mailed them their blessing for testing -- no interaction on Amazon's part needed there.
The next round of Uber stories we'll be reading will involve their being named as co-defendants in wrongful death lawsuits involving unsafe vehicles. In my state, cabs and limos have to go through a state safety lane twice a year. Cab/chauffeur drivers have to have special training and licenses. And cab/limo companies carry PLENTY of liability insurance, and are pretty picky about who drives for them. Uber can try to hand-wave all of that, but sooner or later, huge jury payouts are going to run them into bankruptcy.