
Larry Ellison reportedly says Uber's business model is 'almost worthless' - mudil
https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-says-uber-wework-are-almost-worthless-barrons-2019-9
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quaquaqua1
"Uber has an app my cat could have written." -Larry Ellison

Then why hasn't Oracle written it and become a competitor? Surely with their
11b in profit per year, Larry's cat could have all the sardines it wants in
payment.

I don't use Uber very often but it's usually an enjoyable and helpful and
fairly priced experience to go wherever public transport wont take me.

~~~
nostrademons
Presumably because there's no profit in it. With competition so tight in the
rideshare space, Oracle's entry would just be another one that makes no money.

"Enjoyable and helpful and fairly priced", when flipped around to the
corporate POV, usually mean "Attention-commanding, demanding, and no money in
it for me." This is perhaps why Oracle is as shitty as it is to customers:
Larry Ellison purposely seeks out businesses where he can get away with that
shit, because it means there are no other alternatives on the market and hence
he can charge high prices.

~~~
quaquaqua1
I do agree with you, but most of Uber's spend is on tech salaries and
(superfluous) marketing.

I suppose the more direct point I'm trying to make is that if Uber is spending
$BILLIONS on salaries but Larry's cat can allegedly do the same work, why
hasn't Larry created the app?

Presumably he could even license the tech other companies who want to compete
with Uber but don't have the time to build out the app from scratch. I'm sure
Tesla or Apple or BMW or Porsche would love to diversify revenue streams.

