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by matt_the_bass 3170 days ago
It seems that Uber is frequently receiving bad press for practices that outrage a lot of people. The impression I get is most commenters on HN take issue with many of these practices. Yet at the same time, they seem to be one of the poster boys of the SV new economy. To me this seems at odds with the HN community. I'm curious if others find this as well.
1 comments
jerkstate 3170 days ago
I think that Uber is now a case of throwing good money after bad. The company is clearly going to fail, but so much venture money is at risk they are treated as if they're successful, or going to be successful. The longer the charade continues, the worse it's going to be in the end.
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matt_the_bass 3170 days ago
That could be. Google (Alphabet) obviously has moved on after an early investment in Uber. Alphabet has announced leading a big round Lyft [1].

1. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-lyft-alp...

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malandrew 3165 days ago
Google still has $3.5 billion in Uber. Like Softbank, they are hedging their bets and creating a market condition where they have more leverage to negotiate in Waymo's favor.
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askafriend 3170 days ago
It is far from clear that the company is going to fail. In fact, there are more signals that point to the company's eventual success than it's failure. It's the quality of that success that is at stake, if anything. Not all successes are created equal.

All internal metrics from what I've heard are rapidly increasing with no signs of stopping. The recent negative PR doesn't really affect their core business and their operations are so well oiled at this point that even not having a CEO for a while really had no major impact.

Look, I get it. Uber is easy to rag on and they've bought themselves no favors through their past actions. But let's look at this objectively. There are many parts of their business that are unprecedented and to pretend we know how this is going to play out for sure is impossibly naive. For example, they even have a 20% stake in China's Didi and that's a huge piece of the puzzle internationally.

Ride sharing is here to stay, and the market will only grow. That much is clear. What Uber’s position in a mature market looks like is what’s unclear.

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