Why could Uber's business model break up after its IPO?



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<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Howard Yu is a professor of LEGO in Management and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Switzerland and author of the book "Leap: How to thrive in a world where everything can be copied""data-reactid =" 15 ">Howard Yu is a professor of LEGO in Management and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Switzerland and author of the book "Leap: How to thrive in a world where everything can be copied"

Nothing new can come from a situation without suffering. If any new understanding of the nature of platform companies was to materialize in 2019, it would be because of Uber's extreme overvaluation, exposed this week.

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Uber's valuation at l. IPO this Friday, based on its bid price, will be & nbsp;82 billion dollars. The company raises $ 8.1 billion and is expected to become the largest US IPO of the year. & Nbsp;Only two more IPOs in the US& nbsp; have always been more valuable: Alibaba in 2014, worth $ 167 billion, and Facebook in 2012, for $ 104 billion. "data-reactid =" 18 "> The valuation of Uber at IPO this Friday, based on The offer price will be $ 82 billion.The company is raising $ 8.1 billion and is expected to be the most important IPO of the year.Only two other IPOs in the US have always had greater value: Alibaba in 2014, worth $ 167 billion, and Facebook in 2012, for a worth $ 104 billion.

<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "The & nbsp;the biggest winners& nbsp; This time, Jeff Bezos, whose personal investment of $ 3 million in Uber is expected to amount to $ 400 million. Other notable investors include Benchmark, whose $ 30 million will earn about $ 7.9 billion, and Menlo Ventures, whose $ 67 million investment is expected to reach about $ 3 billion. But the question to the public is: should we participate? What can university research tell us? "Data-reactid =" 19 "> Jeff Bezos, whose personal investment of $ 3 million in Uber is expected to rise to $ 400 million, will rank first among the winners. of $ 30 million is expected to yield about $ 7.9 billion, and Menlo Ventures, whose $ 67 million investment is expected to account for about $ 3 billion, but the question that arises to the public opinion How do we learn from university research?

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "[Readmore:[ReadMore:[Lirelasuite:[ReadMore:Uber holds the promise that every technology company has made]"data-reactid =" 20 ">[Readmore:[ReadMore:[Lirelasuite:[ReadMore:Uber holds the promise that every technology company has made]

In explaining the dynamics of a "platform economy" as opposed to that of a traditional economy, economists and business researchers commonly use the "network effect" to describe the value of a platform. This value depends largely on the number of users on each side of the exchange. For example, the greater the number of passengers in a carpool platform, the more attractive it becomes for drivers, which encourages even more people to use it.

The Washington State of New York, New York, New York, New York, August 10, 2019. (AP Foto / Richard Drew)

And once the platform reaches a certain size, the thought goes away, it becomes too dominant to be dislodged. In other words, a platform economy has no place for multiple actors; the market equilibrium will forever evolve towards a monopoly. So, Google dominates search engines, Facebook regulates social networks, Twitter dominates the microblogging, and Netflix, YouTube and Spotify respectively grabbed the markets of movie streaming, video sharing and music streaming.

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "If we follow this logic, however, it should be Uber or Lyft, but not both, as we have seen with Uber's movements in international markets: he sold his business in China to & nbsp;Didi Chuxing& nbsp; in 2016, not because of the political pressure exerted by Beijing, but because of the fierce competition of local actors. A year later, in 2017, Uber sold its Russian operations to & nbsp;Yandex. This was followed by another release in March 2018, when Uber sank in front of & nbsp;Grab& nbsp; selling its operations in Southeast Asia to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It is easier for Uber to reach the scale than to keep it. "Data-reactid =" 43 "> If we follow this logic, there should be Uber or Lyft, but not both, and we saw it coming with Uber She sold her operations in China to Didi Chuxing in 2016, not because of the political pressure exerted by Beijing, but because of the fierce competition of local actors.A year later, in 2017, Uber sold its activities in Russia to Yandex.In March 2018, Uber has sold to Grab by selling its operations in Southeast Asia to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "This partly explains why, even if Uber is operating in more than 700 cities worldwide, & nbsp;24%& nbsp; of the total bookings occur in only five of them: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Sao Paulo. Outside these major cities, Uber faces fierce local competition. Latecomers in these local markets mimic and surpass what Uber does. Uber still posted a monthly average of 91 million active users by the end of 2018, but growth had slowed from 51% a year ago to 33.8%. "Data-reactid =" 44 "> This explains, in part, why Uber is present in more than 700 cities worldwide, 24% of bookings are done in only five of them (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Sao Paulo) .Outside these major cities, Uber faces fierce local competition.In these local markets, Uber mimics and surpasses Uber, which still had an average of 91 million end-users active 2018, but growth slowed from 51% a year earlier to 33.8%.

Investors often invest in companies losing money, believing that start-up technology companies with modest goals and creative business plans will soon follow Amazon's growth scenario by realizing their own itineraries to the infinite and beyond.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "[Readmore:[ReadMore:[Lirelasuite:[ReadMore:How the biggest Uber investor shapes the global carpool market]"data-reactid =" 46 ">[Readmore:[ReadMore:[Lirelasuite:[ReadMore:How the biggest Uber investor shapes the global carpool market]

To connect precisely this valuable story for an IPO, CEO Khosrowshahi has positioned Uber as the hub of different categories of transport. It included Uber Eats, a food delivery service; Uber Freight, a trucking company; and Jump, a shared scooter and bike operation. Khosrowshahi equated Uber with Amazon.

But Uber has never been on building infrastructure. Amazon has built not only a website and an application, but also warehouses, logistics networks and I.T. systems. Uber has never done. It uses two providers of cloud computing: AWS and Google Cloud. Uber did not even develop his own maps; tens of millions have been spent using Google Maps.

A scooter driver is preparing to deliver a Uber Eats food order in London, June 8, 2018, in Britain. REUTERS / Simon Dawson

The paradox is the following: many companies require heavy investments. Cellular operators and cable TV companies must all spend billions to build their physical networks. But this investment is limited, while Uber spends money not for the construction of physical assets, but for the purchase of market shares, the promotion of incentives for drivers, the reduction of riders and advertisement. These are endless expenses, limited only by a company's ability to raise funds from venture capital and IPO companies. As a result, Amazon lost $ 2.8 billion in its first 17 quarters of public business, while Uber lost more than $ 4 billion in 2017 alone.

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "A luminous point that Uber seeks to highlight in his The IPO deposit is on "platform synergies, "Where" each new product adds nodes to [its] network and strengthens these shared capacities ", which in turn" will fuel multiple cycles of virtuous growth ". He claims that "Uber Eats is used by many of the same consumers who use our Ridesharing products, [and] is based on our existing technology. And in the future, Uber "will be able to more effectively launch other products and offerings, such as bikes and electric scooters without dock, leveraging our existing network of Drivers and consumers and networks." regional. "data-reactid =" 74 "> Uber seeks to highlight in its IPO" platform synergies ", where" each new product adds nodes to [its] network and strengthens these shared capacities ", which in turn" will fuel multiple cycles of virtuous growth ". He claims that "Uber Eats is used by many of the same consumers who use our Ridesharing products, [and] is based on our existing technology. And in the future, Uber "will be able to more effectively launch other products and offerings, such as bikes and electric scooters without dock, leveraging our existing network of Drivers and consumers and networks." regional. ground operations teams. "

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Such growth cycles will not be possible without an integrated data strategy. All data scientists would agree that datasets have a higher geometric value when you combine them. Combined data sets often reveal business ideas and opportunities that would never have been imagined before. When Google introduced Gmail, it created a dataset that could duplicate a user's identity.

The combination of the two datasets resulted in a significant increase in value as future AdWords ads would be more valuable to the advertiser and, by extension, to Google. The same thing happened with Google Maps, which allowed Google to link the identity and intent of buying to the location. Whenever Google introduces a new service, it finds new use cases for user data by combining datasets. This is also the attraction of Uber; the company can recombine data from its core business and then invade an adjacent business area to grow.

DOSSIER – In this archival photo of 18 December 2015, a French livery driver wrote on the window of his car "Stop Uber" while his cars were blocking a roundabout in Paris. The highest court of the European Union decided Tuesday, April 10, 2018 that Member States could ban taxi services like UberPop without prior notification to the Commission. (AP Photo / François Mori, File)

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Nevertheless, this business logic can be undone. year, Europe has adopted its general data protection regulation to prevent consumers from being treated as commodities, who must give their consent before a company like Uber can start collecting data from personal character, and that the company & nbsp;must explain& nbsp; why the data is collected and how it is used. The company is not allowed to use this data for different purposes afterwards. There were discussions and even an & nbsp;legal action started in Germany, aimed at prohibiting Facebook from integrating Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp in order to combine user data from different sources. Another German initiative proposes that the dominant platforms & nbsp;must share& nbsp; grouped and anonymous data with competitors, which means that all transport companies would have access to Uber's information on traffic patterns. "data-reactid =" 98 "> This commercial logic could nevertheless be lost.Europe has introduced its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in order to thwart the treatment of consumers as commodities, which must give their consent before a company such as Uber can start collecting personal data, and explain the purpose of the data collection and its use It is not permitted to use this data for different purposes A German initiative proposes that dominant platforms share bulk and anonymized data with their competitors, which means that all transport companies would have access to Uber's information about the traffic pattern.

Europe would obviously have a limited influence on Uber's overall strategy. But Europe remains the most profitable market outside the United States, a market that no technology company can ignore or challenge completely. London is currently one of the five cities with the largest number of bookings for Uber, and the UK reports to the GDPR, whether Brexit is realized or not. Perhaps the most problematic problem for Uber is that many countries around the world are imitating Europe's position on data protection and consumer privacy.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Thus, the investment thesis inspired by the Platform economy of the past – the winners take everything, the competition is for the loserscan not hold. The tech bubble may not explode as badly as in the 1990s, but Uber's growth prospects and its competitors will diminish. "Data-reactid =" 100 "> Thus, the investment thesis inspired by the platform economy of the past -The winners take it all, the competition is for the loserscan not hold. The tech bubble may not explode as much as in the 1990s, but Uber and its competitors' growth prospects will diminish.

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