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Re:Uber, losing billions, freezes engineering hires by navigatesol on Sunday August 11, 2019 @07:33AM (#20667661)
>they can switch to a better operational model which would be hopefully profitable.

So they have been burning billions of dollars in the hopes that there might be a business model in the future?

Maybe it's just that VCs were naive to think that taxis and food delivery were good businesses.

Re:Uber, losing billions, freezes engineering hires by antpls on Sunday August 11, 2019 @05:05PM (#20670506)
Your sentence seems to insist on "billions", but it's not that much in regard to all the invested money in the world. According to UNESCO (http://uis.unesco.org/apps/visualisations/research-and-devel...), the world's spending on R&D (only) is estimated to be $1.7 trillions. Apple's R&D investment for 3rd quarter of 2019 is $4.2 billions. So, yes, billions are burned in the hope of finding things. Most probably, future generations will even burn hundred of trillions.
Re:Uber, losing billions, freezes engineering hires by freyr on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:39PM (#20671767)
Thanks, I'll try that brilliant logic on my wife.

"Sure, hun, the Porsche was expensive, but it's not that much in regard to all the money spent in the world!"