Uber: pricey and unprofitable

The ride-hailing giant is gearing up for a flotation that will see it valued at $100bn. That looks very expensive. Matthew Partridge reports.

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It can't do food profitably either

The year of gig-economy flotations continues, says Aarian Marshall in Wired Magazine.Ride-hailing app Uber has released the prospectus it filed with authorities ahead of its initial public offering (IPO) later this year. The papers reveal "a sprawling transportation business with operations in 63 countries and 700 cities, providing 5.2 billion rides in 2018 roughly one for every person in Europe and Asia". While the company is losing large sums of money, strong sales growth and current annual revenue of $11bn mean that it is likely to be valued at up to $100bn, slightly short of Facebook's $104bn valuation in 2012.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri