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Potentiality and ignorance

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 6:53 am
by arzina998
It has to do with ignorance. Amazon is an ignorant company. Uber is an ignorant company. And by 'ignorant' we mean the conscious realization that you don't know how you're going to make money tomorrow, but you do organize your entire organization in such a way that you can respond to changes in the world tomorrow, so that you can start making money the day after tomorrow. The nice thing about this attitude is that you can say exactly the same intention again tomorrow. So that it can take a while before the silver fleet actually sails into the harbor.


A little more about Uber, a little more about Amazon and it all has to do with 'potentiality' and 'ignorance'.

The article is a few years old, but no less readable. How to Miss By a Mile: An Alternative Look at Uber's Potential Market Size . It's about Uber's valuation. And actually, you quickly see that something is happening that you see happening everywhere: analysts try to capture new companies (like Uber) in old statistics (like profit, market share, margin).

That is of course their right, those new companies hospital cfo email list themselves have run into the arms of the old analysts by doing an old-fashioned IPO; a stock market flotation. With all the consequences. Road shows, the gong, the thumbs up, the quarter ticker that runs unconditionally, the attention on the financial pages of the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. If you really had to go to the gala party, then you really had to rent a tailcoat somewhere.

If you absolutely had to go to the gala, you would really have to rent a tailcoat somewhere.

'Old' analysts have a hard time with Uber's valuation. Even if Uber were to capture a particularly large share of the taxi market, there would still be no justification for the high valuation of Uber's shares (market value 66 trillion).

But watch out. What is a 'large part'? What is 'the taxi market'? And this is where it goes wrong. Uber is proving that you shouldn't unleash a new idea (call it Uber convenience) on an old concept (the taxi market).

A simple example: in car-rich cities like San Francisco, it is increasingly common for families to forgo the purchase of a second car. It can be cheaper and easier to have all trips done with the second car (groceries, violin lessons for the son, training for the daughter) with the help of Uber. No parking worries, no winter tires, no MOT, automatic administration of trips via the credit card, count the benefits.