[danpalmer]

This is a really interesting point. Uber didn't get its valuation by aiming to be the world biggest taxi company, they got it by aiming to be the infrastructure fabric that underpins everything.

Amazon have started from a very different place, but apart from the user accessible vehicles they are nearly at the same point, with their recent efforts in Prime, groceries, etc.

I wonder whether Amazon will open up that infrastructure further to other companies. Arguably "fulfilled by Amazon" is already starting to do that.

[Applejinx]

Uber got it by aiming to be the most dominant, demonstrably aggressive and ruthless competitor there could ever be. It almost didn't matter what Uber proposed to do, it was in how they meant to do it and Travis personified that, and all the 'bad behavior' was read as good… by Wall Street standards… because it indicated a sharklike savagery that surely no other company could prevail against. This is why they got their valuation.

With Travis gone, the only people who will believe that's still the case are whatever committee is at the steering wheel. They will think they're great and totally capable of being as ruthless and fierce as Travis, which is why they are creating that situation. No other investors will agree: you can't replace someone like Travis with a committee.