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Ars Technica Puts Twitter, Uber On '2018 Deathwatch' (arstechnica.com)
The editors of Ars Technica have compiled their annual list of "Companies, tech, and trends least likely to succeed in 2018... Let's grab a Juicero and take a moment to reflect on the utter dumpster fires that we've witnessed over the past 12 months." Some of its highlights:
Uber. "The company is losing billions of dollars a year, with no clear strategy for getting to profitability. Uber lost $2.8 billion in 2016 and will lose even more than that in 2017. Uber had $6.6 billion cash on hand in mid-2017 -- money that might not last much beyond the end of 2018... The company needs to find a way to stem its losses and get on the path to profitability before investors get frustrated and close their checkbooks..."
Twitter. "Still a money-losing concern. In 2016, it lost a mere $456.9 million, and its losses have continued in 2017 (though at a slightly less hemorrhagic pace). Still, on paper, the company is burning through the equivalent of a third of its cash on hand per year. And profitability (or an acquisition) is nowhere in sight..."
Net Neutrality. "It's not a company, but it's on deathwatch anyway..."
They also advise readers to "Pour out one for Radio Shack, which died even faster the second time around after what looked like a brave reboot" (though it's now getting another reboot). And they're bragging about their successful picks last year for the companies least likely to succeed in 2017.
"Yahoo has now been officially digested by Oath, a Verizon Company, its bits commingling with AOL's in a new, bizarrely named beast that for now bears the same logos... Yik Yak, the anonymous gossiping-messaging app that got banned by various universities for hate speech, is dead -- selling its intellectual property to Square, of all companies... Theranos is busy sending out thousands of refunds to Arizona residents, and the company has rented out its Palo Alto headquarters in an attempt to stay solvent until it can legally test blood again... BlackBerry doesn't make phones any more, having licensed its trademark and some of its tech to TCL. It is now a 'cybersecurity software and services company dedicated to securing the Enterprise of Things.'"
Twitter. "Still a money-losing concern. In 2016, it lost a mere $456.9 million, and its losses have continued in 2017 (though at a slightly less hemorrhagic pace). Still, on paper, the company is burning through the equivalent of a third of its cash on hand per year. And profitability (or an acquisition) is nowhere in sight..."
Net Neutrality. "It's not a company, but it's on deathwatch anyway..."
They also advise readers to "Pour out one for Radio Shack, which died even faster the second time around after what looked like a brave reboot" (though it's now getting another reboot). And they're bragging about their successful picks last year for the companies least likely to succeed in 2017.
"Yahoo has now been officially digested by Oath, a Verizon Company, its bits commingling with AOL's in a new, bizarrely named beast that for now bears the same logos... Yik Yak, the anonymous gossiping-messaging app that got banned by various universities for hate speech, is dead -- selling its intellectual property to Square, of all companies... Theranos is busy sending out thousands of refunds to Arizona residents, and the company has rented out its Palo Alto headquarters in an attempt to stay solvent until it can legally test blood again... BlackBerry doesn't make phones any more, having licensed its trademark and some of its tech to TCL. It is now a 'cybersecurity software and services company dedicated to securing the Enterprise of Things.'"
Happy New Year to Everyone!
Twitter can't die fast enough.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Cash on hard means nothing. This is all fueled by VC money. What a dopey article.
Every time I read that I am completely disappointed that it didn't really explode.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Twitter employs 3500+ people, making that the right amount of dollars to lose at 120k plus per person. Assuming ad revenue covers hardware and utilities and cxo compensation.
I can't imagine why they need that many people. It boggles the mind.
Who cares what they think? Just like sports analysts, these idiots and others like them are wrong every year and there's no accountability for them being wrong. You're better off going to Vegas and putting it all on red than listening to what these turds predict.
The amount of hype around those means that when one goes down, it'll take a great deal of the over-inflated tech industry with it as investors get obvious evidence that 'tech' companies are not fundamentally different than 'non-tech' companies.
Whenever that happens, it'll be 2001 all over again.
This will have some interesting downstream effects on vendors. 2001 pretty much ultimately killed Sun. This time, I'd have my eye on AWS as the troubled vendor this time around (a lot of expense to support revenue that would evaporate all at once in a bubble burst).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
So I wouldn't put them in the same category as Twitter for instance. They can always charge more. Yes, they've had about a zillion mis-steps, several times the quota even for a company in hypergrowth.
Just how. Fire some employees if you can't afford to stay afloat, Twitter is literally an online only company, quite hard to actually lose money unless you're downright incompetent.
Trump will give Twitter a bailout, like when Obama bailed out Government Motors.
In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)
In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)
President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List (Dec. 14, 2017, The New York Times)
Trump has now spent more than a 3rd of his presidency at his properties... (Dec. 26, 2017, Business Insider) "I'm gonna be working for you; I'm not going to have time to go play golf. Believe me." -- Donald Trump, Aug. 8, 2016. YouTube video of Trump saying that.
Trump Promised to Protect Steel. Layoffs Are Coming Instead. (Dec. 22, 2017, New York Times)
10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)
How Trump and the Nazis Stole Christmas To Promote White Nationalism (Dec. 24, 2017, Newsweek)
How Trump Is Ending the American Era (Oct. 2017 Issue, The Atlantic magazine) Quotes:
"For all the visible damage the president has done to the nation's global standing, things are much worse below the surface."
"Foreign leaders have begun to reshape alliances, bypassing and diminishing the United States."
Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. (Dec. 30, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a string of falsehoods in his recent New York Times interview that make it difficult to tell whether he is lying or delusional."
"Trump appears to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that the least competent people often believe they are the most competent."
"Trump's comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed."
Bizarro Cartoon: Santa Claus has limits. (Dec. 22, 2017)
Remember, folks, Slashdot is on a death spiral too, as BIZX, LLC purchased it to push political agendas and destroy any sense of journalism left after kdawson and timothy had their runs. They may have been stupid, but they weren't flaming douches like the people which run it and the new "editors," mere trolls hired to peddle off fake news.
"the company was very big on black-hat SEO tactics"
"single source of revenue corporation -- google ads. If they have a bad month, they layoff people." THIS EXPLAINS A LOT HERE
"I would have to agree with the negative comments on this list the reviews are made up by the company. I've met the owner and he's a shady dude."
"Everyone I talk to that has worked for this man (a good 7 or 8 employees), has had pretty much the same opinion of him (narcissistic, cheap, clueless, selfish, etc)" meaning whipslash
"fire people right before any bonus is paid"
"You never knew when the boss would show up and threaten everyone's job""necessary to fire anyone at will because they don't agree with them. The fact that this has happened to well over a dozen people in the past year is evidence that something is deeply wrong"
"I had a very bummer experience with Bizx, LLC"
"Don't work with them or for them Ã" BizX is not a company I'd ever trust. I was an employee there and the web content produced is written by doing minimal research and pushing advertisers rather than on actual experience"
"Often hostile leadership, micromanaging, and a feeling that your efforts are worthless. Leadership will often pit co-workers against each other, and there is a definite lack of cooperation within the departments, which leads to "each for themselves" type of company culture."
"During the time I was there, people were getting fired so often that people were always scared they were next. A day when the owner doesn't visit was a 'good day'"
"Don't waste your time with this company"
"NOT RECOMMENDED Respect is a two-way street, however you won't get any from upper management. Talking down to employees, yelling, cursing. There are better opportunities out there"
"the low pay wasn't worth it."
"dissent or differing opinions are absolutely not tolerated. Try it and you'll be fired."
"management has been known to yell at people as if they are children"
Too many trolls :)
Ars forgot to include Conde Naste on their 'Deathwatch' list.
Twitter. "Still a money-losing concern. In 2016, it lost a mere $456.9 million, and its losses have continued in 2017 (though at a slightly less hemorrhagic pace). Still, on paper, the company is burning through the equivalent of a third of its cash on hand per year. And profitability (or an acquisition) is nowhere in sight..."
Kind of hard to make money when you're constantly changing the service to meet Silicon Valley whims.
"Forget the engineers." -Carly Fiorina, briber of MIT Technology Review.
- HTC is doing better now that they sold their phone business to Google. We'll see if Google messes up like they did with Motorola.
- Uber will be fine. They'll IPO in 2020 at more than $20 Billion in valuation. That'll be a huge disappointment for Uber investors, but the world never has to go back to the taxi.
- Twitter will be like Yelp. Not a great business, but an ongoing one.
- Faraday and Karma and a bunch of other hyped electric car businesses will fail and get absorbed into Fiat or some other non-US car maker. But maybe not in 2018. Tesla will keep going.
- Gearbox has Borderlands 3 in 2018. It should be a huge success if they don't pull an EA and accidentally cut their own throats.
- Apple will prove critics wrong again by selling more iPhone X units than expected. Apple profitability will be helped by AirPod and Watch sales. New products in 2018 will be good. Critics will continue to be wrong.
- Cisco, Apple, Intel, Oracle, and Microsoft will all announce a special dividend for stockholders and huge stock buybacks, paid for by funds finally brought back from overseas.
- Slashdot will continue to be a politics and Internet-complaint site that occasionally mentions technology topics.
- Facebook use will see year over year usage declines in the US
- Silicon Valley culture will continue to be authoritarian as it relates to politically correctness. Calling people racist is the only marketable skill some people have.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 will be the biggest entertainment release of the year, bigger than any other game, book, movie, TV show, sporting event, or music release. It will be an amazing world. The story will be very good, but not as good as Red Dead Redemption.
seeing as most of their stories now contain 30% by volume of 'people reacting on twitter'. double bonus if the tweet came from ANY level of sleb
still front page news over xmas has included 'famous person's father dies' and 'cousin of famous person shot'.
With the maker movement, I could actually see Radio Shack working as an extension of local maker spaces. Or maker spaces in places that don't have them. It'd take some really bright management, though, and that's one thing it seems like Radio Shack hasn't had for a very long time.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
unless (or until) governments act against it for violating labor law. Uber has basically done an end run around 100 years of hard fought worker protections and rights. The economic value of that is hard to fathom. Take what every the 1% don't already own and you've got a rough approximation. So no, Uber isn't going away anytime soon. Not unless you can convince the working class they and the entire 'gig' economy is a threat.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Will Oath now spit out an owl pellet of teeth and bones?
Specially since no one really seems to understand what it entails. The current administration has been really successful in framing it as a free market issue; it is kinda sad to see everyone discussing along those terms.
I've noticed a real trend over the last year or so. Approximately once per day there is a dump of stories to Slashdot that have been on the front page of Ars Technica in the last day or so. It's almost like someone posts all the Ars stories to Slashdot as they're doing their daily reading.
Once day I'll do an analysis to determine if they're posted in reverse chronological order or not (i.e. from the top of the Ars front page).
Twitter is worse than 4chan.
When I left their forums they began stalking me to other forums (3dfiles & NTCompatible) which promptly ceased as I ran them out of their own IRC chatrooms (that Peter "not too bright" the GOITER MAN hosted) - so much for their tech skills (along w/ what you note)...
* They're the WORST kind online - they only do what their 'masters' (owners & ad sponsors) tell them to 'champion' for THEIR OWN ENDS (not yours or your good).
APK
P.S.=> They're VERY FORTUNATE I didn't swat Ars entire forums & servers out of existence as I could, easily, within 5 minutes - but, I am not out to be arrested (the law is the ONLY THING THAT PROTECTED THEM FROM ME DOING THAT) & it was FAR more satisfying seeing Peter "not too bright" cry about it @ the very sites they trolled me @ for years - then I crushed Jeremy Reimer & his henchman Jay Little on Exchange Server @ Windows IT Pro (where outside their 'private ars playpen' they couldn't delete or edit my posts)... apk
2018: twitter dies
2019: facebook IS ruled illegal and banned for destroying society and young generation brains
2020: internet is shut down to enable net non-neutrality to the fullest EXPAND of possibility
2021: Microsoft relaunch MSN for 4.99$ per month
Imagine the ripple effect through the economy if the bitcoin bubble bursts and Uber and Twitter go bye bye. This should rapidly erase any economic gains and might actually cause some real turmoil.
I recently started taking them. They are about 70% the price of a cab. I like been able to just step out of car when I reach my destination. I think there IOS app needs work. I would like the ability to set a time for a meet. What they may need to do to solve cashflow is toincrease their price.
I'm thinking that pretty much nobody who's suddenly felt hipper-than-thou using the phrase "dumpster fire" has ever sat around a campfire, let alone seen an actual dumpster on fire.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Uber and Twitter, both will get a government bailout.
that site is so grossly pro-American, anti-world, and full of petty, hateful little people who violently react to anyone with a differing opinion in the comments section.
Twitter can't die fast enough.
Amen, brother, but...
The article was much easier to read by looking for what wasn't there: NOTHING about the stock markets or share prices. Actually, there were implicit considerations of the capitalization of the deathwatch companies, but almost no explicit consideration of the financial situations. (There is a little bit in the Uber entry.)
The most vulnerable companies right now are the ones most exposed to burps in the stock prices. Considering how the electronic stock exchanges work these days, you can be sure that there are some burps coming. A useful deathwatch list would consider how much of a stock-price burp it would take to sink the threatened companies.
However the GIGANTIC threat is not a burp, but an actual crash caused by a bursting of the bubble that market caps are now living in. The stock prices have become completely divorced from realities and underlying values and even the companies' wildest dreams. The stock prices are just one computer's "opinion" that some other computer will offer a higher price for the shares. Each computer is programmed to think it's the smartest computer in the world. When has that ever failed!
Face it. Capitalism is deader than communism ever was. What we have now is corporate cancerism and stock prices are like taking the temperature of a tumor. The creed of corporate cancerism is quite simple: There is no Gawd but profit, and is Gawd's prophet. Too many prophets of fake profits are about to spoil the soup.
Pick ANY company. Estimate how volatile the stock price is and what could trigger a big drop. Then look to see who (and whose computer) is ready for the quickest leveraged buyout.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
I mean, I thought the reason people use it convenience?
I live in a country and an area with functional public transportation (actually, it's sometimes considered the country with the best public transportation system in the world), so I usually use that.
The number of taxis I've taken in my life can be counted on two hands, probably.
And I never really found anything objectionable about them.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
* fired Pax Dickinson for social justice
* diagnosed Linus Torvalds with a mental disorder
* promotes communist nutjob Zoe Quinn's fraudulent Crash Override Network
* deleted comments that did not fit their party line
* promotes/cites communist nutjob Brianna Wu
* promoted the #ThankYouEllenPao campaign as soon as it began
* promotes Github's communist nutjob Corey Ehmke (Coraline Ada)
* was part of a smear campaign against Palmer Luckey
* is run by a friend of the Lerer brothers, the same group that runs Huffington Post and Buzzfeed
Business Insider is almost a canonical example of a fake news site run by socialist America-haters.
Twitter, is for TWITS. Spreads more garbage, than a truck with the gate down. PRIME example. Ferguson Missouri. Twitter spews out "police shoot unarmed teenager with hands up running away". Riots, burning of businesses, black lies matter and for what? Few weeks, moths later, we find out not only was he not running away, he was running TOWARD the officer, AFTER he assaulted a store clerk, assaulted the officer, attempting to take his weapon, was a past troublemaker, firearms, drugs and what not. Still today, ask a lot of people, they will say they shot him running away. Twitter, should be trashed....from the president, on down! The bulk of social media is garbage.
I worked at RadioShack many years ago for two years and I have them included on my resume and in my employment history. Assuming a company looking to hire me would verify my information, where would they go to in order to verify my employment, my job title, and my performance? Could I get away with claiming I was a store manager that turned around a failing store and ended up ranked #2 in my district? Who would know any different?
Much of my employment history in filled with companies that don't exist anymore.
Ars Technica Puts Twitter, Uber On '2018 Deathwatch'
C'mon c'mon, hurry UUUUPPPP! DIE ALREADY!
Ars has lost all credibility at this point. Used to be a halfway decent and informative site, but its become so full of political agenda driving the articles that it reads like a propaganda sheet which sometimes covers a bit of science and tech.
The level of commenting is according. At one time, and still on some stories on some subjects, you could read the comments and find interesting and informative discussions. But on most of them now its a sort of high school level frothing at the mouth, and the editorial and moderation functions appear to be encouraging it.
In addition, its full of advertorials and infomercials. Its always been in thrall to Apple, but the amount of coverage of Apple last year could only be explained by a weird collective obsession with the company, or a
very profitable relationship of payment for coverage.
Its a real loss. But then, when you get taken over by a company which publishes Vanity Fair, and whose idea of fun is to get into a joint venture with Goop by Paltrow, what do you expect?
See subject: I told it EXACTLY how it was between arstechnica & myself and outside their private playpen I annihilated the lot of 'em easily!
* They're a pack of stooges & FOOLS as I said (as did the person I replied to).
APK
P.S.=> You're wasting YOUR TIME telling LIES ZontarTheMindless (psycho that sent me postcards like the loon you are)... apk
I hope next year Airbnb dies. They are destroying the lives of millions of locals in the cities where they operate. Whole neihbourhoods are transformed sleeping quarters for drunken tourists, making the lives of the people who live there a continuous hell. Please let Airbnb and the likes of them die a fast and fiery death.
-- Cheers!
My son abandoned his IT job for Uber. He makes more money driving for Uber than the programming job he had.
And the stress is less, the hours split, but self-managed. He enjoys being his own boss.
We have food stores (McDonald, Harveys, etc), that now use UBER home delivery. Any store can suddenly provide home delivery. That is a new profit area for UBER.
Outside of the USA, we don't know about Uber competitors, save local taxi services.
I mean....isn't their business essentially.
We hook you up with a ride, you pay us. We own no cars, we do no maintenance. We split the fee with the driver, taking a large chunk as a finder's fee. All we do is run a website/app.
I mean really, what are they doing that is losing them so much money?
I think there is a real chance that someone will seriously look at acquiring Twitter in 2018. It's not likely to be Facebook, Google or Apple, because of the prospect of a major antitrust fight with the FTC and DoJ. And it definitely will not be the Chinese companies that operate Sina Weibo and WeChat.
One possibility I've thought about personally is someone like Naver Corporation of South Korea, who runs the LINE messaging service that is very popular in eastern Asia.