[nl]

Why Uber Keeps Raising Billions - yes, it's trying to build marketshare, and intimidate others from backing rivals.

But the reason isn't because ride-sharing is a network-effect heavy industry.

It's because logistics is an industry that is cheaper at scale.

The long game for Uber isn't ride sharing, it's logistics, and "people delivery" is only one (fairly minor) part. If Uber can pick up enough scale, then every time a delivery is picked up (in one of the driverless vans of course) it can also deliver multiple packages along the way. That's where scale is important, and why the capital is important.

Talk to an UberX driver: here anyway (in Australia) Uber is already sending them on optimized delivery paths when they do delivery.