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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.'"
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.
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.
Cash on hard means nothing. This is all fueled by VC money. What a dopey article.
VC's pay out on the expectation of a big payday at the end. If their belief that you'll find profitability doesn't match your need for capital then you go under.
I stole this Sig
For sure, but to claim that Uber is going to go under because they are running out of "cash on hand" is silly. They can always raise cash. Even Theranos raised money recently, and they are a fraud. Money is extremely cheap and available right now, and the rich are only getting richer.
- 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.
I actually do not think...
See, you could have stopped right there.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Do you have a reliable source, not ones tainted by socialist America haters who regularly push fake news?
Businessinsider can hardly be called "socialist America haters".
But perhaps you are begging the question by classifying anything that reports what goes against what Trump says as "socialist America haters" and "fake news"?
Is spying on competing services really that expensive? They've got their app developed, their not-employees employees use their own cars... all Uber has to do is shuffle bits and collect a percentage. How are they still losing money??
Hardly so. Whether BTC has a future as a currency or not is very much up for debate, but its current market cap is a statistical error in the grand scheme of things.
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.