[cyberax]

> They acquired those customers by burning billions of dollars to deliver rides below the cost of providing them.

That is exaggerated. Uber was losing something like $0.50-$1 per ride in 2018.

Uber/Lyft were (and still mostly are) just _better_ than taxis.

[const_cast]

It’s not exaggerated. Uber was losing hundreds of millions of dollars per year operating. That’s billions.

I don’t know if I trust Ubers numbers on this. I don’t know what they’re counting as “cost per ride”. Does engineers salaries factor into that? What about data centers? Advertising?

If you factor all of it in, then they’re losing billions.

[cyberax]

> It’s not exaggerated. Uber was losing hundreds of millions of dollars per year operating. That’s billions.

Well, yes. However, the impact of that on the ride cost is exaggerated.

> Does engineers salaries factor into that? What about data centers? Advertising?

Yes.

> If you factor all of it in, then they’re losing billions.

And when you divide it by the number of rides, you get into sub-$1 figures.

[const_cast]

> Well, yes. However, the impact of that on the ride cost is exaggerated.

Yeah, because they’re losing the money. Meaning YOU’RE not paying it, it’s being lost.

Keep in mind this is also with:

- uber not providing the capital for their rides. Taxi companies buy taxis, uber says you buy it.

- vastly underpaying their work force.

- skirting employment laws with gig work

- relying on tips! The ride cost doesn’t include tips, despite that being a huge portion of wages!

[torginus]

Uber was a 9 year old company in 2018