Uber is much more complicated than Lyft, and investors should not evaluate them the same way

Spending more time and money on autonomous vehicles is worth it for Uber, said the company.

With its vast network of riders, restaurants and freight forwarders – as soon as driverless vehicles are safe enough to run on public roads around the world, Uber should have an advantage in marketing and taking advantage of them.

Advanced technology projects also help Uber recruit and retain engineers in the hyper-competitive market in San Francisco, where its headquarters are located. Uber employs approximately 20,000 full-time people today.

Investors are also banking on a technological boost for Uber. The company warns in its S-1 filing that it could never become profitable. Its sales reached $ 11.4 billion last year, but $ 1.8 billion remained in the red.

But international and "horizontal" history has worked well with venture capitalists and equity investors. Prior to their IPO, Lyft had raised $ 4.9 billion and Uber had raised more than $ 24 billion. At the time of its IPO, Lyft was valued at more than $ 20 billion. Uber is aiming for a high valuation of around $ 120 billion.

It remains to be seen whether Wall Street investors will have as much confidence in Uber's potential and focus on growth as on profitability who knows when.

Those who believe in Uber's long-term growth will no doubt compare it to Amazon, a company that appeared to be an online bookseller but which has gradually grown to become the store that sells everything and the giant of it. cloud computing, focusing on profit growth for several years then.