| No, the $4 Billion in revenue was last quarter. In other words $48/user annually, not to mention the huge growth of even that number. That's why its market cap is ~$300 Billion. Yup, that's my bad, sorry. That said, unless they can continue to grow that number, their trajectory is based on subscriber growth, and that must necessarily flatten out. Profit alone is just a bad way to value quickly growing companies Agreed. But a company that can't not lose money is not well positioned. And the fact that Twitter's growth trajectory has flattened out only makes me more nervous. In most cities they're not "illegal contract workers" even today You're right. They're illegal across the country according to federal labor regulations. Uber and its ilk are almost certainly illegally classifying their workforce as contractors when they should be employees. It's actually a really easy line to cross, and if you ever work as an independent contractor, it's worth familiarizing yourself with the regulations as it obviously has significant tax implications, among other things. This is the basis for this class action: http://uberlawsuit.com/ When that hammer comes down, Uber's profits will evaporate. They're also very likely to face similar legal action in other countries with similar labor protections (e.g. Canada). And that's ignoring their violating taxi regulations all over the place (though I admit I have more sympathy for them in that regard, as I generally view those regulations as anti-competitive). |
How popular will the politicians (e.g. state attorney generals) who push to destroy those businesses be with consumers/voters?
We don't have to look around very hard to see laws/regulations that go unenforced because politicians/regulators fear voter backlash.