[tfehring]

I won't comment on Airbnb because I work there, but for Uber and WeWork, the fact that they're global is a feature in and of itself. It's great that I can request a ride in a city I've never been to, in my native language, without having to look up a local taxi company's phone number or download their app, and with relatively low risk of getting scammed or extorted.

I don't know if Uber or WeWork are or will ever be good investments, but their products are clearly great for users. The fact that they abstract away the underlying hard problems so effectively that they seem like they should be the same app is just a testament to this. But the underlying problems that they're solving are fundamentally very different. WeWork doesn't need Uber's complicated routing and matching algorithms, for example. And unlike WeWork, Uber probably doesn't have architects or construction engineers on staff.

[mrtksn]

Of course they have an utility but the question is if it is that big of an utility to warrant the current or their peak valuations. Also, bulldozing over the local laws and regulations is not that big of an abstraction to act as a moat, nor is the routing algo or anything else. There were/are so many companies doing it, it's just that they didn't have the deep pockets to compete against companies who sell a dollar for pennies.