Hacker News Reader

I'd curious to see an explanation of just how the ride-sharing business might be profitable.

I assume this:

"Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, argued that Uber’s future was not as a ride-hailing company, but as a wide technology platform shaping logistics and transportation."

implies that Uber hasn't figured it out.

View on HN

Not clear to me it’s more complicated than raising prices. But that probably implies operating in fewer markets and lower volume. You’re a taxi with better dispatching at that point.

"Can you give us $8 billion for 10% of this venture so we can, you know, figure out a way to make money?"

This is was done for quite awhile for Amazon.

I'm tired of this fallacy. Amazon was losing money only because it was expanding. They could have stopped expanding and they would have made money instantly.

Uber on the other hand is losing money because they are actively competing. They cannot be in business without losing that money, that's where it's scary

Part of the way I remember the early Amazon is they were bootstrapped by the fact that web purchases were, for a time, exempted from state sales taxes.

Some of that history here it would seem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_Stat...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com