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But not a resource that was able to become profitable.



It is the Uber hypothesis. With so many users and so much demand, there must be profit somewhere right? /s


They're already making money from 200k paid user accounts, from their team/enterprise-facing products, which they're using the funding to expand on.

Also, Uber has raised 160x as much capital, which makes the comparison slightly hyperbolic.


Not sure that's the best example: Uber is profitable in mature markets, but has high fixed costs from legal battles and SDC adventures.

My question is, why can't SO make a profit? All the substantive content is given for free by the community, and it's a widely known, relied-upon site. How is it so hard to cover operating costs from ads and whatever related sources come from that?


Uber is only “profitable” if you ignore a lot of expenses.

I’m purposefully not choosing the latest quarter that looks worse. I don’t think it’s fair to judge whether a company has a sound business model based on the effects of Covid.

https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-det...

Adjusted EBITDA. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), excluding (i) income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of income taxes, (ii) net income (loss) attributable to non-controlling interests, net of tax, (iii) provision for (benefit from) income taxes, (iv) income (loss) from equity method investment, net of tax, (v) interest expense, (vi) other income (expense), net, (vii) depreciation and amortization, (viii) stock-based compensation expense, (ix) certain legal, tax, and regulatory reserve changes and settlements, (x) asset impairment/loss on sale of assets, (xi) acquisition and financing related expenses, (xii) restructuring charges and (xiii) other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance.


it's more like there's no reason why it can't be profitable but it wants to expand into 100 other niches




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