Uber reported some 2018 Q3 quarterly financial numbers on Wednesday.
As similar ride-hailing companies across the globe may go public in the coming 2019-2020, here I compiled some publicly available numbers together.
While Uber’s revenue growth is slowing down, at least it can target a 2019 full year revenue over $15 billion with 25%+ growth rate (an implied valuation multiple of 8x revenue).
Similar for Lyft – at least it needs an annualized revenue of $3 billion (an implied valuation multiple of 10x revenue), which means ~$750 million per quarter. It seems easier to achieve to me in Lyft’s case.
And Didi… its take rate from GMV is said to be much lower than Uber’s (~23%). Assuming a GMV of ¥120 billion in 2019 and a take rate of 10%, Didi will achieve an annual run rate of ~$1,700 million. Then it will be valued at 50x revenue multiple for a $85 billion valuation…
No comments on specific company. But overall, this space seems to have stretched valuation.
However, some other factors need to be counted in, such as low risk of competition (the market structure is mature or foreseeable I would say), the definite future of transportation-as-a-service (with growing market share in overall transportation), upcoming initiatives (e.g. autonomous car services, autonomous on-demand truck, etc.)
It seems that certain future is coming for sure in many investors’ eyes. Or they are just made to believe in it.
Wall Street Journey took an new initiatives to rank the 20 largest US airports by a basket of measurements, including 14 factors and 1 survey.
Here is the link to the WSJ post and a screenshot of top 10 candidates.
Source: WSJ
Some interesting metrics used include Yelp ratings for food, Wifi speed, UberX fare to convention center, etc..
The WSJ’s new ranking is also interesting itself.
Thought 1: Useless (for travelers)
No one travels just because there is a convenient/cheap airport.
People travel when they know where they need to be. Then it doesn’t matter if the wifi speed is slow or not. Gonna be there anyway.
Thought 2: Informative for new business/conference
When a new conference is planned, lots of research need to be done. The airport could be one of the important factors. UberX fare between airport and convention center should be used to choose new venue of events/conferences/assemblies.
But not the other way around.
thought 3: educational for airport operators
The rank might be useful for airport operators to learn how to improve their travelers’ overall experience.
It could be used as KPI for its employees or management team.
It could also be seen as a COMPLAINT.
For example, JFK and Newark airport have a reliability score of 16.5 and 9.5 respectively – out of 100 (Phoenix airport is the highest in reliability with 80.5); Newark airport has a value score of 13.5 out of 100 versus Orlando’s 77.
The writer/reporter or the team behind the rank must be very upset/disappointed with New York’s airports – Newark, JFK and LaGuardia have the three lowest overall score… among 20 airports.
Moderna filed S-1 with SEC last Friday and will become the largest biotech IPO in history.
The record amount of raise ($500 million in current version of documents; I will expect more) just surpassed $421 million (HK$3.3bn) IPO by Innovent. In the past years, the typical size of the largest biotech IPO is around $200-300 million.
Since October, we have seen a series of large biotech IPOs that might also contribute to the money pulled from other biotech companies.
Here is the list of ever-increase IPOs in size since October:
US has no official language on the federal level, according to Wikipedia – very interesting. It seems to me that this is one of the many indicators of US being designed to be an overarching organization.
“There is no official language at the U.S. federal level. However, 32 states of the United States, in some cases as part of what has been called theEnglish-only movement, have adopted legislation granting official status to English. Out of 50 states, 30 have established English as the only official language, while Hawaii recognizes both English and Hawaiian as official, and Alaska has made some 20 native languages official, along with English.”
Hawaiian language
TheHawaiian alphabethas 13 letters: five vowels (each with a long pronunciation and a short one) and eight consonants, one of which is the glottal stop calledʻokina.
Frequently used phrase
Aloha = hello, kindness
Maholo = thank you
Kokua = support
Shaka = hand gesture of extended thumb and pinkie
Lei = necklace made of flowers, shells, leaves, or kukui nuts
Mauka = towards the mountain; makai = towards the ocean.
另一个全球共识，各国家地区都已宣布并付诸实践的，是大力推动新能源汽车的发展，最具代表性的就是Tesla为首的电动汽车。按照各自的时间表，内燃机车的销售还能有10-20年。实际我认为电动汽车时代会来得更快，就像iPhone短短两三年就能让诺基亚和黑莓成为历史。虽然汽车相比于手机周期会更长，但变革来临时，用脚投票的消费者往往超出现有预期。最好的证明 – Tesla Model 3 在今年第三季度已经成为美国最受欢迎销量最好的车型。
It is not necessarily something new/surprising – traditional media are PAYING tech companies to be promoted.
Source: my Twitter on 11/8
I found this really ironic in the sense that originally most media should BE PAID to promote something. The reach to readers is built in the gene of media and defines one of the two pillars of media business model.
Tech companies like Twitter/Toutiao, are not just selling promotions/ads. To me, they are more like real estate developers. They are building towns/offices for people to live/work and renting out the places such as tops of buildings… What’s more, they are doing this everyday and creating places everyday with little physical limits and marginal efforts.
When the town is getting crowded, it becomes Manhattan, where real estates are pricey. Those who were invited as “Official Accounts” now needs to pay more money to be seen. The tech companies can run those auctions which no one questions their eligibility (and why Manhattan is in New York).
Crystal City near Washington was reported a few days ago by Bezos’ Washington Post as the choice for Amazon’s HQ2; only after 2 days, medias reported that it’s going to be split into two cities.
While the result will be announced soon, I think it is worth to review tech firms’ real estate moves by looking at Facebook, Google, etc. This post will focus on Facebook.
Facebook’s original office (since 2004) was in downtown Palo Alto on Emerson Street. It had 5 or 6 offices, one conference room, and a large common area.
Source: Daily Mail, NY Times, Redux, eyevineSource: Business Insider
The following expansion in Palo Alto including leases on S. California Avenue and 1050 Page Mill Road.
Facebook moved to Menlo Park in 2011, the old campus of Sun (acquired by Oracle) – an 11 building, 57 acre, 1 million square foot property on the Bayfront Expressway. The purchase was a sale-leaseback with a 15 year long-term lease, with an option to purchase the campus after five years. There were no tax breaks included in the deal with Menlo Park. Facebook has also bought a 22 acre building connected to the campus by a tunnel. It was rumored that Facebook had been considering a leaseback of the property, with the purchase being assigned to a state pension fund. A 15 year leaseback was confirmed today, with the option to buy after 5 years. [TechCrunch]
Source: e-Discovery Team
Besides the move in Silicon Valley, in December 2010, it leased two floors with up to 150,000 square feet at 335 Madison Avenue in New York City, accommodating up to 600 people. It began construction on a $450 million data center in Forest City, North Carolina in 2010 after the first one announced earlier that year in Prineville, Oregon. Facebook also announced a 500-person office in Hyderabad, India, as the first office in mainland Asia, investing up to $150 million to the 50,000 square foot facility.
The number of employees start to explode since 2010.
In a 2013 report, FB has the project, called Anton Menlo, cost an estimated $120 million. It will sprawl over 10 acres of land off Highway 101 in Menlo Park, California. The 630,000 square-foot Facebook town will be walking and biking distance to Facebook’s headquarters. There will be 35 studios, 208 one-bedroom apartments, 139 two-bedroom apartments, and for top Facebook employees, there will be 12 three-bedroom apartments. [Business Insider]
Source: Business InsiderSource: Business Insider
In 2015, FB acquired a 56-acre industrial park immediately south of its current Menlo Park headquarters. The purchase of Prologis Inc.’s 21-building Menlo Science & Technology Park — which industry sources pegged at roughly $400 million. [Silicon Valley Business Journal]
In 2016, Facebook goes from rent to own in Menlo Park in $202 million deal.
Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal
During 2017-2018, FB has opened offices and hired at a blistering pace, with enormous new leases in Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Fremont. This month, Facebook leased all the office space in San Francisco’s new 43-story Park Tower, vaulting it into the ranks of the largest tech tenants in San Francisco. Instagram, a major Facebook subsidiary, recently moved 200 employees into another San Francisco office tower. [San Francisco Chronicle]
In June 2018 reports, Facebook has leased an additional 754,000 square feet for offices in Fremont.
In 2017, FB said it will two more Prineville data centers, followed up by a report of $750 million in Sep. 2018, bringing total investments to $2 billion and total footprint to 3.2 million sqft. The expansion will take nearly two years and employ 1,500 construction workers at peak.
Facebook Data Center in Prineville, August 14, 2015 | Source: Thomas Boyd, oregonlive.com
