The ride-sharing industry has long been seen as a zero-sum game because of the “network effect”: The more customers sign up for Uber, the more drivers sign up, making it tougher for rivals to mount competition. There will most likely be only one or two significant players in any given market. (More on that in a moment, because there might be some cracks emerging in that point of view.) The question is whether the financing game is zero-sum too. And the even larger question is whether Uber’s eye-popping capital investments could ultimately act as a deterrent to investors who might consider supporting Uber’s competitors: Will they look at Uber’s balance sheet — it has some $6 billion in cash just sitting there — and throw up a white flag? So far, Uber is clearly winning the valuation game: It is worth more than virtually all of its rivals combined. But Uber still has formidable competition in the fund-raising arena: Didi, the market leader in China that is engaged in a money-losing battle with Uber, just raised $7 billion, some of which came from Apple. (Mr. Kalanick, too, was hoping to raise money from Apple and had planned to meet with executives at the iPhone maker the same week Apple announced its investment in Didi.) Perhaps strangely, several of the same investors that have backed Uber are also backing Didi in China, including BlackRock and Tiger Global, so it is hard to say that one service is deterring investment in the other — at least not yet. (It is worth noting that among the investor class, some may be hoping that Uber might one day merge its Chinese operation with Didi.) Uber’s most recent fund-raising effort — focused on the leveraged loan market — aims to avoid diluting the current base of shareholders. It has hired Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to sell about $2 billion in loans. By avoiding a traditional round of financing, the company also avoids the company having to risk trying to sell itself at an even higher valuation. Given the remarkably low interest rates, investors looking for yield may buy into Uber. Uber says it is profitable in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia — if you factor out taxes and interest payments. The challenge for Uber is breaking into China and India, perhaps the two largest markets in the world. Uber is currently on track to lose about $2 billion annually in those markets as it heavily subsidizes customers and drivers to gain market share.
Uber has raised $ 15bn from private investors since it launched as part of a strategy to ward off smaller competitors in the ever - growing market for ride - sharing technology , says Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times . “ ' ’s money - grab is seemingly part of an unspoken strategy to mark its territory , ” Sorkin writes . “ Every time Uber raises another $ 1bn , venture capital investors and others may find it less attractive to back one of Uber ’s many rivals : Didi Chuxing , Lyft , Gett , Halo , etc ” . However , according to Sorkin , this strategy has not been particularly successful as yet , given that a long list of rivals has formed globally . Nevertheless , Uber ’s master plan could still come to fruition as these rivals will eventually run out of cash in the long - term and venture capitalists will become less inclined to invest in platforms going up against the mighty Uber .