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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

Uber's revenue numbers are awful. "According to Bloomberg, Uber had revenue of $415 million (we assume net revenue after payments to drivers, not gross revenue) and an operating loss of $470 million." That's for 2014, and it's leaked data. But it's not good. Why are they losing money? They're an app and a server farm, some "driver centers", and an admin staff. It's not like Amazon, with giant warehouses full of expensive inventory. They're already scaled out; the expansion phase is over.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-leaked-financials-look-u...

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They're losing money because they are aggressively expanding into new markets.

They're an app and a server farm, some "driver centers", and an admin staff.

And, you know, a lot of cars and drivers. Of course Uber would want to make sure we all remember they are not Uber property and employees, but they still have to spend a lot of money to get them on board.

What is their remaining market? Are there many countries/cities that still have easily disruptible taxi markets (e.g. "Medallions" or similar)?

4 hours ago:

Uber invests $1 billion in Indian market

http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/31/technology/uber-india-1-bill...

Yeah, there are some big markets out there yet.

Yes, but a market being big doesn't mean there is a lot of low hanging fruit in that market. In a market with a regulated number of cabs it's easy to see how uber can find market share (like in NYC). In a market without medallions or similar, where there is already competition among taxi companies making margins slim, I don't see how Uber can be so disruptive. Having an app, dynamic pricing, and abusing the workforce should be obvious steps already taken by existing taxi companies in those markets!

> They're losing money because they are aggressively expanding into new markets.

So expenses related to office space, hiring and marketing in each new market? Now, are those one-time charges that will scale overtime, or does the model call for local presence in every single market and becomes inherently unscalable?

I'm actually pretty sure their main expense - at least when it comes to expanding internationally - is lawyers and lawsuits. I mean Uber drivers get threatened and their cars wrecked in France, where the existing taxi companies - that have to pay a lot of money and / or have certain connections to be able to drive a legal taxi - have protested against Uber vigorously.

As other comments have already said, Uber is still expanding. They are also spending millions on self-driving car R&D. http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne...

I think they're still expanding into new markets, and they gin both the supply side (boosting drivers' wages) and the demand side (giving drivers discounts) to establish themselves in each new place.

I still don't get how that gets them to $50B.

Uber's revenue will continue to skyrocket. They are not "scaled out," and as revenue exceeds well-beyond $1B and they no longer have solid investment opportunities for growth, their expenses will get in line.

They're spending money to get new drivers as they expand all over the world.

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