Uber Loses $900 Million In Second Quarter; Urged By Investors To Sell Off Self-Driving Division (bloomberg.com)

Last week, Uber reported a second-quarter loss of $891 million, even though it brought in $2.8 billion in revenue. "While it's a 16 percent improvement from a year earlier, the loss follows a rare profit posted in the first quarter, thanks largely to the sale of overseas assets," reports Bloomberg. As a result, the company is being pressured by investors to sell its self-driving cars unit, which Uber is spending $125-200 million a quarter to maintain. From the report: Even after increased spending last quarter, revenue growth is slowing. Sales rose 63 percent to $2.8 billion in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. The rate in the first quarter was 70 percent. [Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi] Khosrowshahi is pouring large, undisclosed sums of money into food delivery, logistics and autonomous-car technology. The San Francisco-based company has said the food delivery business, Uber Eats, represents more than 10 percent of its gross bookings. Growth in that segment may be masking a slowdown in Uber's main business.

Comments

Doesn't need to invent the self driving car

[perpenso]

Uber does not need to be the inventor of the self driving car. They only need to be a user of the self driving car. And frankly they are behind in self-driving R&D and doing a crappy job at it as well.

The question no one is asking

[MikeDataLink]

How is this even possible?

Seriously. Look at their business model. They have a frakin' smartphone app. They don't own the cars or have employees and they take a 25% cut of every ride.

Please tell me how they can spend $3Bn a year in the first place? What are they spending it on? Two college kids in dorm room could write the app and keep it updated.

Mike