• About & Contact Us
  • SEO Community

Ulancer.com

    • Latest Stories

      What is new?

    • Meet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in London

      September 27, 2018

    • Rally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series A

      September 27, 2018

  • News
  • How to’s
  • Writing
  • Startups
  • Jobs
  • More
    • CMS Tools
    • APPS
    • Web Resources
      • Advertising
      • Firefox
      • Scripts
      • Tools

Uber could be profitable if it wants to, says CEO

  • by Ulancer Contributor
  • In Startups
  • — 15 Feb, 2018


Uber lost $4.5 billion last year, but CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he’s not worried. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, the newly appointed chief defended the company’s financials, saying that “we can turn the knobs to get this business even on a full basis profitable, but you would sacrifice growth and sacrifice innovation.”

He said that it’s Uber’s commitment to “developing” markets that are dragging things down, but he views that as an “optional investment.” However it’s the “right thing to do,” he said, claiming that the company won’t stop investing in Asia anytime soon.

Revenue last year was $7.5 billion, but Khosrowshahi was keen to tout a “$40 billion run rate,” a measurement of total transactions on the platform. He also spoke of a more than “100% revenue growth rate,” meaning that sales have more than doubled.

Khosrowshahi also addressed the company’s public image which he believes was “appropriately negative,” but insists that he was pleasantly surprised to find that the company has “good people,” who are committed to changing the world of transportation. “We deserve to be and we should be a brand that is beloved as an Amazon or a Google.”

He spoke of the settlement with Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google parent, Alphabet. Uber is “happy to put it behind us,” he said. “It was a very very significant distraction for the teams that were working on our autonomous technology.”

In general, he was very optimistic about self-driving cars and spoke of a day where the average ride will be about $1 per mile, down from roughly $2.50 per mile. It’s “the only way to get the cost down,” he said of driverless transportation.

Khosrowshahi also said the recent SoftBank investment was a major milestone because it provided liquidity for some employees and also “was a catalyst for us to move forward on some governance changes.” In particular, he’s referring to the lawsuit between Benchmark Capital and former CEO Travis Kalanick.  “The acrimony between Bill and Travis didn’t serve the company well.”

Khosrowshahi has grand visions for the future, stating that he hopes Uber will get people to stop buying cars. “Traffic is going to get better.”

Featured Image: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images


News source

You might also like...

  • CommonSense Robotics raises $20M for robotics tech for online grocery fulfilment 15 Feb, 2018
  • Sisense hauls in $80M investment as data analytics business matures 12 Sep, 2018
  • Neighbor, a p2p self-storage marketplace, bags $2.5M seed 28 Mar, 2018
  • Personably, software that helps on-board new hires at fast-growing companies, gets backing from GFC 18 Apr, 2018
  • Previous story Activant Capital closed $129 million growth-stage fund
  • Next story Facebook should actually be Tinder too
  • RSS
    Receive Freebies & Latest Posts Directly To Your Email - it's Free!

    • Recent Posts
    • Most Popular
    • Comments
    • 7hrCggmJ-AMMeet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in LondonSeptember 27, 2018
    • oNo38LV2tQIRally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series ASeptember 27, 2018
    • Nearby.gifBerkanan is a Bluetooth-powered group messaging appSeptember 27, 2018
    • 2122.pngVinay Gupta to talk about Mattereum at Disrupt BerlinSeptember 27, 2018
    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
    • wptheme2A Collection of Free WordPress ThemesJuly 11, 2010
    • Bharat Sarkari Naukri on:Spotify acquires online music studio Soundtrap as it goes after creators
    • PMP on:Online learning platform Unacademy gets $21M Series C from Sequoia India, SAIF and Nexus
    • Predictive Eye on:Element.AI opens London outpost with focus on ‘AI for good’
    • SmartCursors on:4 Tips for Keeping Your Freelance Finances In Order
  • Staff Picks

    • slider_wp_03Best collection of WordPress Slider PluginsJuly 5, 2010
    • Joomla template builderTop 8 Free Joomla Template GeneratorsJuly 19, 2011
    • 40+ Best WordPress Plugins for Comments40+ Best WordPress Plugins for CommentsJune 18, 2011
  • Recent Posts

    • Meet the startups that pitched at EF’s 10th Demo Day in London
    • Rally Rd., the app that lets you invest in classic cars, raises $7M Series A
  • Search Our Blog

  • Ulancer is an insightful freelance blog and resource site. We provide intuitive articles that cover Photoshop tutorials, time-saving management tips covering a broad range of topics. We also have an active freelance community forum, there you can meet other freelancers that share your common interest, socialize and chat about freelance trending news as the occurred.

© Copyright 2013 Ulancer.