Thread by @parismarx

I’m rereading Hubert Horan’s “Can Uber Ever Deliver?” series in its entirety, and it’s just so good. Absolutely nails the problems with Uber’s business model and why the arguments it makes (that media often repeats uncritically) are complete lies.

“Uber not only lacks the major cost advantage [over incumbents] … but actually has higher costs than traditional car service operators in every category, except for fuel and fees where no operator can achieve a cost advantage.” nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-ub…

“Highlighting the app also implies that Uber is a ‘technology company’ that has completely ‘disrupted’ industry economics, and is not simply a traditional company like Domino’s Pizza that is utilizing smartphone ordering.” nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/can-ub…

“A key issue here is that ‘tech’ has morphed from one element of a larger business toolkit into a quasi-ideological/religious ‘movement’ based on inherent virtues that the ‘non-tech’ world lacks.” nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/can-ub…

When criticizing media responses to his economic criticisms of Uber, Horan posts this comment by Tom Slee that outlines how Uber’s argument evolved over six years, none of them ever bearing out.

nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/can-ub…

Libertarian think tanks “conducted a major taxi deregulation campaign in the 1990s advocating the same complete elimination of all forms of legal/regulatory restrictions … that Uber is seeking, & laid out a detailed communication program that Uber copied” nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/can-ub…

“If one takes Uber’s judgements at face value, one could conclude that Uber’s only profitable activity is getting paid off for discontinuing staggering unprofitable markets.”

China, Russia, & SE Asia “incurred significant expense but had almost no revenue”nakedcapitalism.com/2019/04/hubert…

“All of the new businesses Uber has expanded into (food delivery, scooters) appear to have even worse profit margins … and their sole purpose appears to be to boost revenue growth rates, and mislead naïve investors that Uber has Amazon-like potential” nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/hubert…

“Uber’s financial releases and Dara Khosrowshahi’s public statements have come to almost exclusively emphasize EBITDA measures. The problem is that none of these honestly measure EBITDA, and Uber aggressively misrepresents EBITDA as ‘profit’.” nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/hubert…

“Q2 Uber revenue in its ‘Eats/delivery’ business doubled but the economics of these services were always substantially worse than Uber’s hopeless car service business. … Q2 ‘Eats/delivery’ had an ‘adjusted EBITDA’ 25 margin points worse than car services” nakedcapitalism.com/2020/08/hubert…