[Izkata]

> The term cost of revenue refers to the total cost of manufacturing and delivering a product or service to consumers. [0]

It sounds like "developing the core product" falls entirely under this bucket, so with what others are saying about what falls under other buckets is right, then the one that looks most cuttable to me is actually "Research and Development". That sounds like the "experimental new stuff that may go nowhere" bucket, and if it's eliminated it would also put them just above break-even. Maybe they could focus on improving profits for their core product for a while before bringing that back.

Maybe there is necessary stuff included in it though, which I guess means that wouldn't be an option.

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cost-of-revenue.asp

[spookthesunset]

All tech companies put most of their engineering under “research and development”. It lets you capitalize your expenses and smear them out over many years.

[poppytaker]

Kinda, they can classify the activity of the engineers project work as r&d, and capilise the appropriate amount on the balance sheet (i.e. does not show under r&d expenses). Over time that would then be shown as depreciation, not r&d. You can't captilise an engineers time that is maintenance work.

A quick look at Ubers annual report states they do not capitalise r&d costs and instead expense it as incurred.

[spookthesunset]

Exactly. I just wasn’t about to write in all the details.