I’m sleepy right now, so I’m going to keep this post short. I came across this Wall Street Journal article shared by one of my Anderson professors: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-that-will-change-your-life-in-2020-11577456561
Two of the points mentioned are:
1. VC money is going to get tighter and shift away from growth towards profitability.
2. The so-called “technology platforms” such as Uber and DoorDash are going to have to treat their “partners” more like employees. Yeah, as if these companies are making enough money to pay employee benefits.
So the story is self-evident. Uber, burning billions of dollars of cash each quarter, now has to pay its drivers benefits, while VC’s are moving their money to actually profitable or potentially profitable companies. Uber runs out of money and falls.
I have been a skeptic of Uber since at least 2016. Not from a user standpoint, but from an investor standpoint. I love it that Uber has been subsidizing my rides to the airport, and I don’t believe Uber will ever turn a profit. In fact, I believe that most of these apps are going to fail in around 3-5 years: Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmate, etc. I could write a very long article on this topic, but I’ll need some time to gather my thoughts. If I don’t end up writing anything, let’s all re-visit this post in 2023.
Richard Anderson 