Is it typical for reporters to confuse profits with revenue? None of the decks I've seen show profits, I've always assumed that my rides are subsidized by VC money.
The author isn't a reporter (or, at the very least, she's new to it). Claire Callahan Goodman is a Bay Area native from a large family, whose careers have included Classical Musician, Software Engineer and Mom.[1]
The article published in Salon was a draft I sent them and they ran with it. Once I knew they were interested, I did a lot more research and number crunching, assuming they would want more facts and detail. They didn't change a thing! They published the article in their "Life" section. I think this section is reserved for non-reporters writing about life experiences and that's why they didn't require expert fact-checking. I do agree that no one knows who gets paid what in the upper-echelons of UBER - but I would guess it's a LOT.
Where do you see that from the article you linked? It says So $10 billion of gross revenue would equate to $2 billion of net revenue. To have profits of over $1B on $2B of revenue would mean a profit margin of over 50%!