Uber may never be profitable … admits Uber

Private ride-hailing giant Uber has warned that it may never be profitable. First published on www.ITSInternational.com

The candid admission comes in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) which it reportedly hopes will value the company at $100 billion.
This potential IPO figure is some way below the $120bn predicted by analysts just last year. 
And Uber warns: “We have incurred significant losses since inception, including in the United States and other major markets. We expect our operating expenses to increase significantly in the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve profitability.”
Other admissions in the SEC filing include: “We are making substantial investments in new offerings and technologies, and expect to increase such investments in the future. These new ventures are inherently risky, and we may never realise any expected benefits from them.”
The company says the world of driverless taxis may not offer all that is hoped, too: “We may fail to develop and successfully commercialise autonomous vehicle technologies and expect that our competitors will develop such technologies before us, and such technologies may fail to perform as expected, or may be inferior to those developed by our competitors.”
In what has become a familiar refrain, the company also argues that its business would be “adversely affected if drivers were classified as employees instead of independent contractors”.

First published on www.ITSInternational.com

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