This is the second part of my last post. . .
Uber’s stratospheric valuation has joined “the weather” as the conversation topic of last resort at awkward dinner and lunch meetings. Without any hard numbers or rigorous analysis, I’ve alternatively played the role of brainless cheerleader and green-eyed skeptic – neither of which has convinced people that I’m a thoughtful and intelligent human being. So today, I’m going to try something different: I’m going to crunch some numbers and reach an independent opinion about Uber’s $40B valuation.
Now among the world’s most iconic Internet companies, Uber is often compared to eBay circa 2000. As the original marketplace company, eBay has a similar business model, scale (billions in net revenue) and more importantly, network effect driven hyper growth. For this analysis, eBay will play foil to Uber.
