Lots of fashionable BS in that article. SV is never about solving big problems. It’s about making money. And in turn that profit-chasing process lifts society and mankind. That’s what capitalism is all about.
“The business of America is business.”
Also Uber only had one day on the market. One. Already people are writing the entire company off?
Pop quiz: the following chart came from a high profile IPO in not-too-recent past. Which company is that? Poor thing stumbled hard for weeks after IPO. Surely a loser?
Answer: Facebook.
@manch Has Mark didn’t come out with a monetization scheme, it would be like Twitter. Just because Mark can do it, doesn’t mean Dara can. Until Dara did, WS didn’t want to give the benefit of he can.
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I am not saying Uber will be successful like FB. I am just saying basing the entire bear case on ONE day of stock performance is not sound.
Uber makes money. It has a monetization scheme. It’s not profitable. Yet.
Actually I think a better parallel for Uber is early days of Amazon. Back then online shopping was new. Many bought online because it was cheaper, partly because you didn’t have to pay sales tax. I told you my coworker used to say nobody will shop at Amazon if they had to pay taxes. Well, dead wrong. The convenience of buying at Amazon means many people, like me, buy on Amazon even if prices are higher. I don’t even check prices anymore.
Similarly car hailing is new. Uber and Lyft are spending heavily to make it cheaper than alternatives to lure people to give it a try. Once people realize it’s a much more pleasant way to get around than say taxis or driving your own car people will be willing to pay a premium for Uber. I am quite confident they will get there.
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Pleasant? From cost perspective, both Taxi and Uber are cheaper. From convenience perspective, no clear winners, depends. One thing I don’t like is to sit with strangers 
and unpredictable comfort/ driving style. Cars and gasoline are not expensive in USA as compared to Singapore 
So even though I hardly use the car, I am willing to pay for it, so long no need to sit with strangers.
There are different classes of service Uber provides. You are referring to the cheap tier Uber Pool in which you share the ride with strangers. Pony up if you want to have the car all to yourself.
Driver is a stranger 
You interpret strangely 
New startup idea: Uber, but only female drivers. 
Can anyone name a successful company with a 10% gross margin? Even regulated utilities have a higher gross profit.
How much is amazon retail’s margin? I bet it’s less than 10%. Bezos famously said your margin is my opportunity.
Before FBA and AWS amazon used to be a sub-10% margin company and growing like a weed.
The gross profit was never that low. That’s business suicide.
The Rise of the Uberlings
Alumni of the ride-hailing giant have been more likely to go it alone than previous tech titans.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-13/the-rise-of-the-uberlings?srnd=premium
Impressive founder…
Silicon Valley’s Latest Unicorn Is Run by a 22-Year-Old
Scale AI, which counts Waymo and Uber among its customers, is teaching machines to see.
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Startup might be uninteresting for a few years. I feel that money is now hard to make.
It’s now more important to keep the money you have made instead of aggressively looking to grow.
What’s the safe place to park your money? RE is one place. Bond, dividend stocks could also be good
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is facing some short term challenges.
Over the long term, it can do very well. But stability is not its feature at the moment
We were warned back in ~2010 when looking at places in Mountain Viewthat the area bordered by 101, 85 and 237 was the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. Lots of rumors…may or may not be substantiated…of cancer, infertility and brith defects due to TCE from semiconductor manufacturing. Could all be made up but as a young couple we decided not worth the risk.
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