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Uber Losing $1 Billion a Year In China (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the yuan-way-to-approach-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has revealed that the ride-sharing company is writing off $1 billion a year in order to consolidate its place in the Chinese ride-sharing app market. Kalanick said in a speech at the Vancouver Launch Academy that Uber is deeply engaged in a fight for customers in the Chinese market, and that an unnamed competitor is "buying up market share." Uber's main rival in China is Didi Kuaidi, which invested $100 million in Lyft and Ola to last year in a consolidation effort against Uber's incursion into the market — which many believe to have occurred too late into the development of ride-share schemes in China.

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. So not only are they scumbags, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They're underpaying their workers worldwide to burn money in China? Talk about being sacrificed on the altar of capitalism.

    1. Re:So not only are they scumbags, but... by mlw4428 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm unclear why you're being marked down, it's not an untrue statement. Even if it's not intentional, it's certainly happening. Uber cut rates and while they offered a "guarantee' the prices posted are before Uber takes a 20% cut (again...even off of the "guaranteed fee"). Uber didn't drop their commission rate with the cuts and is, instead, spending gobs of money in China. This would appear, by any reasonable person, to look like they're exploiting their US-based Uber drivers. I can't see a good reason to really disagree with him other than to say "well maybe it's not intentional." And that's not really a disagreement about the nature of what his message throwing out.

  2. Ride sharing? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the development of ride-share schemes in China.

    Isn't ride sharing where one is already going to a specific location and someone asks if they can come along, maybe picking up the cost of tolls for the ride? Or has the definition of ride sharing changed to mean directly contacting someone to have them pick you up at a specific location so you can be driven to a location where the person was not otherwise going and you pay them a fee and maybe give them a tip for their work?

    At least the scheme part is right.

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    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  3. How does Uber lose money? by DogDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Uber is an app. An app that's already written and finished. How the HELL do they burn through so much money? I know that most of the dot-coms are just robbing the dumb investors, but to lose this amount of money is truly astonishing.

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    I don't respond to AC's.