Uber is doomed

http://davelife.com/2014/09/three-things-iuls/

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New uber data. Now they have employees at airports that donā€™t drive. I think thereā€™s 4-5. They just direct the drivers and help passengers find their cars. They are on Uberā€™s payroll, so expenses are increasing. They get 80k rides a month to/from Seattle airport.

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Wow! But presumably that just increases sales as they can make more round trips faster.

Actually it will increase sales.

Airport is the only place where I usually dont call a Uber while going back home. Its easy to just walk out and take the regular cab. I know host of other colleagues who do the same. We are all 1K milers

If there is easy help to get Uber at airports that would be awesome for me.

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forgot to mention just look at the power of data to take actions. Goes far beyond writing few lines of codes and making a software.

By following my data they can easily deduce that the only place I am missing calling an Uber is while going back home from airport. Now if you check this logic with 100 similar personas as me you can easily see similarities. Place 4-5 employees and see if this behavior is reversed or reduced. You can then extrapolate this across hundreds of airports and user profiles for a quick CBA.

Data as the competitive edge and moatā€¦same as google who uses the data and customer behavior to keep tweaking its algos and indexes to produce best resultsā€¦compare it to Yahoo search and Bingā€¦

if you can mine this data for other business services then its just icing on the cake.

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Itā€™s only a moat if the advantage created canā€™t quickly be copied. Lyft already has the same thing at the airport. Iā€™m sure it could be copied within 30 days, so thatā€™s not much of an advantage. A moat should be a barrier to entry that discourages competitors. New competitors keep entering the space.

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It can be copied but its not viable business unless you have the customers and drivers too that can fullfil that demand quickly.

you can copy the practice but not the interplay of many other things that enhance, consume and feed the practice, and thus makes it viable commerciallyā€¦

else retailers would have copied every day low prices model of Walmart and become as big as Walmart themselves.

I will stop commenting on this topic now.

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Ah, yes, those ā€œmany other thingsā€ ā€¦

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I usually get a client or two a month showing me how out of touch with the financial world they are when they confuse whole life with indexed life insurance (IUL). They just donā€™t get it, they seem not to understand the mechanisms of what makes WL different to IUL!

I also have genuine, hard working people crying when telling them how their world turned upside down in 2008 because their 401K went down 38%+. On top of that, they donā€™t know, or donā€™t remember that taxes are still to be paid, probably 30%+, plus, the up to 24 charges the 401K brokers apply to the buying and selling stocks.

For purposes of this topic, 401K was never intended for retirement! But so many ignorant people, and I say it as a compliment, not to scald anybody, but many people ignore, even how much they have ā€œinvestedā€ in their accounts, they donā€™t know if they are earning $ or not! They just know they are ā€œearningā€ and that this money will be for their retirement, of course, uncle Sam is awaiting for his respective piece of the pie with a 30%+ of the money.

For example: IULs, at least the one I promote, has living benefits as free riders. But I am not going to teach smart guys like you what you should know about LBs, right? You too may know there are no surrender charges, if there are, so minimal, you would laugh, right? Try that with WLā€¦And, tax free loans?..:scream:

Whole life doesnā€™t have the indexing feature. The market goes down, your account goes down too because your whole money is invested in the stock market! Duh! You know that, right? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Our policy also has a rider, that allows the policy holder to leave a legacy to his charitable organization, that is out of the books, it comes from the policy carrier. About $30K to any charity.

Anyway, if you donā€™t like whole life insurance, ask yourself how come New York Life is still in the market? We see their policies almost every day, and we better not comment on them because the clients Iā€™ve seen, have been with them for 18 years and out of the $18K they put in premiums, they have $12K available. I can easily tell them that they were better with a term insurance, $60 for $300K < > with living benefits. What an incredible deal! And they have been paying $92 for a $50K WL policyā€¦Geesus!

Here, this following article is full of ideas, misconceptions and it can teach you people more than one detail about this nonsense.

Then, something about whole lifeā€¦pffftttā€¦:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

The Bottom Line on Whole Life Insurance
Whole life insurance will provide a death benefit, tax benefits and cash value, but will cost you a lot more than the cheaper more straightforward term life insurance option.

Whole life insurance is a safer permanent life insurance choice than some others, it can provide guaranteed interest, premium, and death benefit, so you know what to expect.

Whole Life is the most expensive option in the life insurance family of policies ā€¦and may cost 5 to 10 times more than a term life policy and a little more than a universal life policy.

Get whole life while you are young as part of a strategy to maximize benefits, or when you are older if you are wealthy and want to do something with all your extra money.

Make sure you will be able to pay your life insurance policy. Buying a whole life policy will not help you if you end up skipping payments or choosing an amount you canā€™t afford and have to try and switch life insurance policy later, or worse get canceled and end up losing everything. Start reasonably, you can always add coverage as you need it. The important thing is to start somewhere.

Make sure that the insurance company you are purchasing your life insurance policy from has strong financial ratings, you are investing in a policy that will last a lifetime, so the insurance company you choose should have good stability.

Beware of Hidden Costs in Whole Life Policies:stuck_out_tongue:
Do not ever just buy whole life insurance because someone says its the best choice. Whole life insurance pays higher commissions to the broker, and may also include fees for the management of the investments. This is totally normal for investments, you will usually pay fees somewhere, but make sure you discuss these aspects with an advisor and have been well informed on your choices and what to expect.

Tip: Asking your financial advisor or life insurance broker or agent questions will yield the best results for you long term. If you donā€™t like how they handle your answers, find someone you are comfortable with. This is your life youā€™re investing in and your familyā€™s security.

Stocks Are Volatile, Will That Impact Your Whole Life Policy? <----------:stuck_out_tongue:
Address concerns about fluctuating stock market prices, for example, ask your advisor what they think of what happened with universal life policies in the past 20 years. Make sure you are comfortable with the answers you get. Find out how your whole life policy will protect you and how the savings portion works. Being well informed will always protect you fully and a good advisor will not be annoyed with your life insurance questions but will be happy to thoroughly review your concerns and give you guidance.

Every mile? Thatā€™s not even close to ready for prime time.

If the autonomous cars actually work, Uber would have to buy and maintain millions of carsā€¦Why do that when stupid Uber drivers do all that for them at less than their costs? Seems like Uber is spending billions on a idea that will cost more than it will saveā€¦

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Agreed. Also, drivers are generally providing their own cars. Why pay for cars and have to maintain them when someone else will do it for you?

Well, Uber is going to get better now. The government is authorizing their employees to use Uber. Cha-chin!

Google it.

Itā€™s starting to look like Twitter in terms of exec departures.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-ubers-president-jeff-jones-210335231.html

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These types of escort-karaoke bars are very common in Asia (I heard). Maybe Kalanick should have gone by himself, not taking the entire team there, including some female execs.

Not in Singapore and Malaysia for sure. Suspect not in Indonesia also, such activities are conducted quite discretely there.

Uber could be this generationā€™s Enron. There will be case studies about it.

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Andā€¦somebody told me I was too negativeā€¦oh boyā€¦:innocent: