[hef19898]

Excluding an integral part of the costs to say they are profitable is like saying you are cash flow positive, after including external funding. There is a reason why companies are running their books the way they are. Very good and valid ones!

[supperburg]

I don’t know if that’s a technical accounting term but “integral” is the key word there. Massive expansion is not integral to the normal operations of a business. R&D and literal billion dollar ad campaigns are tools to expand and grow into whatever space is open from lack of competition. Amazon filled their space, Tesla theirs and one of the computerized taxi companies will fill that space. Until they do, they will spend money on expansion. So that’s the key. It’s a temporary state. “Integral” is a completely incorrect term for the cost of that growth. The viability of a business is based on how much it costs them to actually carry out their core business.

And maybe Uber has already gotten as big as they will get. It doesn’t change the fact that they don’t need one billion dollars in advertising. And also, what you are asserting is that it’s impossible for a computerized taxi company to exist. So do you think it would be cheaper to have a human dispatcher? Obviously you can run a profitable taxi company. It’s been a thing for a long time and the computers aren’t making it any worse or more expensive I can assure you.

[varjag]

There's a bunch of ways to rationally explain the losses in any operation. None of them make it profitable.