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tv   Bloombergs Studio 1.0  Bloomberg  September 11, 2019 9:30pm-10:01pm EDT

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♪ ago travisears kalanick and garrett camp an elite car cat, service in san francisco. within five years uber had a and completed one billion rides. two years after that, the number billion across 600 cities and 70 countries. it became one of the fastest start-ups ever. services ballooned to cover nearly all modes of transportation, carpool, helicopter, even water taxi. regulators and taxi drivers protested uber's expansion on
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investigations for deceiving authorities, twice violations, bribery sexual harassment. investors pushed out kalanick and dara khosrowshahi was brought in to fix it. he's brought in new management, anded to rebuild trust reputation. it hasn't been an entirely smooth ride. flashy i.p.o. sparked excitement but ultimately impressed.ere not the job is to prove them wrong. joining me on "bloomberg studio 1.0" at uber headquarters in downtown san francisco, uber c.e.o., dara khosrowshahi. been a long two years. two years ago it was announced that you would be replacing c.e.o., travis kalanick. and even you've admitted you horse,e unlikely dark even accidental choice. makeears later, did they the right choice and did you
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make the right choice? i made the right choice and i hope they made the right choice. i'm confident that they did. you can never prepare yourself for a job like this and uber is once-in-a-generation company. but it's been a great two years for us. have resolved all of the governance conflicts that the company had. many legal issues the company was involved with, as well. in as a partner and you want softbank to be behind you and a big partner and we have a great investor base. we've taken the company public grosse company revenue, bookings have grown 75% since i joined. path toave a profitability, i believe. bumps on thee had road and every adventure has bumps on the road, i like where are and especially the position we're in now for the next few years. only: there have been bumps on the road and despite all the ridesharetories,
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companies have been transformational. uber be as transformational over the next decade as it has over the last decade? dara: we believe it's brought transportation to what we small segment of the population. we have over four million driver artners all over the world, huge number which is unparalleled but we want uber to everybody ando we're going into the next step of introducing other transportation choices to uber. always gone with pool but we're testing buss in cairo now even bring the price of uber down to the next level, a 50, et cetera. emily: can the uber be so transformational and stop losing money? the prices sound attractive but create a good business where the rides are a dollar, a
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dollar 50? at oures, you look rideshare business, it covered less about $100 million. so the rideshare business itself profitable ande we believe the profits of the rideshare business not only are grow top line but bottom line, as well. and then there are other eats, autonomous, trait, et cetera, extraordinarily opportunities funding but i believe we'll prove to our investors serial can take on a basis big parts of our business, and usem profitable, those parts of the business to areas.siness in the emily: the stock trading below its i.p.o. price more often than not. seem to love shorting it. you have hiring freezes on ofious teams and fired some confidentevel -- how are you that uber can be
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profitable? >> dara: very confident. we reported a loss from an accounting perspective and in e bid loss,ld, our we're lower than q1 and we're on in terms of ebitda losses, as well. but you're right. none of this will be easy and will take excellent execution of our teams, marketing, et cetera, and we'll employees to be doing more with less and to execute incredibly effectively in order andus to grow the top line bottom line, as well. emily: is pricing the main lever profitability or are there other drivers? dara: scale. got getting big when you've over a billion rides per quarter and trips growing at 35% on a year on year basis. we think we can use technology to be more efficient. for example, instead of your having to email a call center
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agent or call a call center issues, you have can do it in an app. these are technology innovations allow customers to have a better experience and bring down combination of growing top line over 30%, technology innovation to dhit delight the customer and take down costs and good old-fashioned efficiency, making sure corporate costs don't grow a fast as our revenue is formula to profitability. emily: uber's market cap is 50 some billion dollars. there was talk it could be 120 billion dollars. your compensation is tied to that. still get there? dara: i believe we can. short term, right now short term do aboutg that we can the stock price. there's an old saying that short term the stock market is a term it's ane, long weighing machine. i am very confident that this team can execute and create a very heavy company that can be denied. emily: so west, how long does it
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take -- next i think it's in the couple of quarters are going to show a road map to investors but it will take years. this is a short-term game. but i believe we can demonstrate progress. for example, i talked about our growth accelerating the second half of the year. revenue about our growth accelerating in the second half of the year beyond 30% and we've always been consistent in saying that the bottom line ebitda will continue matter.op in a positive emily: we're in the midst of escalating trade tensions. uber if theis economy falters? dara: our company is much more in to the consumer and the consumer right now in the u.s. is very strong. very global company. the majority of our transactions actually are outside of the u.s. we really look at global growth to the extent that global growth slows down, that could be for us, although if global growth slows down, we'll
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alsomore driver partners wanting to come off of the very,rm because we expose very flexible labor opportunities. so i do think that the growth of we'llmpany is such that be relatively resistant to any macro slowdown and we're not any slowdown with the u.s. consumer as of yet. emily: what's plan b, if we're a full-blown trade war. we've heard of investing in vietnam or brazil? an asset-light company so we don't have to buy cars, et cetera. be wary and make sure that our driver partners can source economic way. many of them source vehicles through second-hand. used vehicles, so to speak. so i think this trade war -- we felt it -- in small parts of the business where we're importing bikes, for some additional expense but it's not having a material effect on the company about growthfident over the next few quarters with
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war.thout a trade emily: you've asked people to like amazon.ber amazon was an online bookstore before they did all this other stuff. what if now is the right time to focus on the core? dara: we have been in the ridesharing business for a long time, as well. and that business is developing and its profitability is developing. we're the top player in every market in which we compete and we're either holding share or taking share in those market places so we have a core business that provides the framework for us to build multi-billion dollar opportunities and i think it criminal if we don't take advantage of that. you are seeing more and more apps and companies that are apps,ng ecosystems, super so to speak, especially in the east, for example, in china. emily: grab trying to do a super app, 10 cent. think aboutway to the future? dara: the super apps are winning
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the super app of transportation so to speak that acquire customers at a cheaper rate than our competitors and allows us to keep customers because we have a deeper relationship with them and we think if you can acquire customers and keep them longer, winning formula. emily: uber eats is what, 20%, business? dara: yes and growing quickly. global playerest out there and we continue in the food, we believe can be as large or even larger than the ridesharing category so we love that business and continue to invest in it. many: there are so competitors that do exactly what you do ithis market and other markets. you're just subsidizing our meals and you don't win the is a giante and this hungry money pit? think peoplen i could have accused the rides
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business of the same. the ridesut that business, you see it with ourselves and lyft, it is moving profitability.of as you build these businesses with the potential so big, there is subsidization that goes into the marketplace to create efficiencies. you need to get eaters and couriers and sign up restaurants and there is investment early on. there will always be competition in big categories. we have the advantage because we have hundreds of millions of ride side thate we can introduce to our brand and let them know that there's uber than just riding, but there's eating and other enjoy.ou can emily: some of the businesses we hear less about, like scooters. haven't heard a lot about scooters lately. what's the likelihood you pull out of some of these businesses? have every business will to execute and carry its weight, so to speak. inre a big believer micromobility. it's in the early days.
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we believe in electric bikes. in electric scooters and increasingly i think the mayors of the large cities all world are going to want to be interested in ways of that don'tle around pollute, that don't create believe and we micromobility can be part of the solution. emily: would you curtail international expansion in the term? dara: every part of our business has to fight for money and if they're not deserving money, they're not going to get it. believe me, internally, there's destruction,ive there's lots of competition and if one part of our business own weight,ng its we will pull back. we pulled back out of china and $2 billionhat was a investment in cash into what can billion stake in didi, a very big ridesharing business in china, as well. in the end we're looking to build a business. we want to build it the right alignment with our
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partner society, et cetera. something's not working, we believe we've demonstrated the discipline to make the right call at the right time. every management has their faults. i've got my faults. built afact is they great company and now they've handed it to me and i've got to take that great company and make greater. ♪
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emily: when we last visited there was a driver protest outside. democratic candidate pete buttigieg was out there with them. he said gig is another word for jobs. that means you're a worker and be protected as a worker. there is support for legislation that would force companies like uber that rely on contract drivers and delivery people to make them full-time. full-time?'t they be dara: they don't want to be full-time. some do. more than half of our drivers in u.s. for example drive less than 10 hours with us a week.
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california right now has a historic opportunity. we're at the table. these discussions and we want to the get to a solution. $21 minimum an hour when you're driving on a platform. offering benefits and we're offering a voice as far as you're going to be treated going forward. an an hour compares to $12 hour minimum wage. this is real money and these are real rides and you get the flexibility that every single uber driver or courier wants because they can come into the market when they want to or out. this is an historic opportunity think revolutionize the gig economy and i don't think gig is a type of work. only one way to work and everyone needs to be full-time, et cetera, i don't itnk that's correct, because takes away flexibility and flexibility is absolutely something that all of our drivers prize. emily: can you give them flexibility and give drivers and
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safety at the same time? legislatures work in the interest of making something happen, absolutely. making very we're significant investments in safety as far as the safety ride,, tracking your et cetera and we believe we are the leader in safety as far as transportation goes in the world and will continue to invest aggressively there. emily: we're going to talk a futurebit more about the but before we go there i want to talk more about the past. over had someook toxic cultural issues. illegal payoffs to police officers. violence, sexual assaults, murder on the platform. angry taxi drivers and a management team that turned a blind eye to much of it in the at all costs. so-called brilliant jerks, if you will. some people who say that leadership was bolder, thinking, maybe better. how do you respond to that?
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dara: i think time will tell and need different kinds of management for different times in the development of amp. the management -- every management has their faults. i've got my faults and every team at the time has their faults but the fact is companybuilt a great and they've handed it to me and i've got to take that great it evenand make greater. i think i'm up to the job. while they made their mistakes, is they built a great brand that had weaknesses and has incredible strengths. to take it to the next level. lewandowski, who ran the trucking business that charged withwas dealing technology to google and dealing trade secrets. what do you make of those charges? dara: i wasn't here when we brought anthony on board but what i do know is that we went to incredible depths to make sure that any information that anthony might have acquired from
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google and it sure looked like didn't make it over to our company. that was our responsibility and i think we were incredibly making sure that we of anything that one way or thes other. we think when you build, you have to build the right way. anthony is talented. it didn't work out but i think we did the right thing. emily: the person who spearheaded that acquisition cost uber $100 million, is still on the board, travis kalanick. asked you this on i.p.o. day. do you question travis' position on the board? think that i am going to live in the here and now. incredible amount of historical knowledge about the company. bright, as are our other board members and i board -- he's a very strong adviser and his
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background on the company is incredibly useful and i think he's supportive. ultimately now we're a public the shareholders are going to get to pick their own board and that governance of itselfll take care going forward. emily: you talk to him often? to him during board meetings and once in a while offline, absolutely. board fors on the now? dara: he's on the board for now and will be on the board tomorrow. ♪ dara: fast forward 10, 15 years going to autonomous is be a huge part of how people get around. it will becheaper, safer. why not invest now. ♪
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emily: let's talk about the future, then. to those who say that uber is a ridesharing and food delivery company, what is uber's next big idea? dara: i think that the ideas that we have right now in this building are plenty big ideas. we've got ridesharing, we've got havedelivery, we
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micromobility, we've got autonomous. freightt revolutionizing how truckers move around and how shippers world.oduct all over the we've got elevate, as well. we have an enormous number of it's executionow time. they: where is most of technological innovation happening at uber? dara: it is happening all over. there a combination of digital and the physical and the two coming together in unique ways. we have very interesting, for example, machine learning algorithms looking at live city, and demand in a what riders are looking for and where they're located, and then giving our drivers guidelines as to where to go in order to meet that demand. matching of supply and demand in a dynamic way and the have isthat we something that's unique. we continue to innovate there in then we innovate
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different spots such as elevate as to how we can bring together offerent modes transportation and tie them together walking, driving, example, now, to j.f.k. emily: you're in charge of not visualizing the future of transportation but trying to get there and create that future. future, look into the what does the future of transportation look like? dara: we think we can bring it together. can have that singular app where every morning when you wake up, any way you from point a to point b, we can give you the information that is relevant to you with live pricing, inventory, et cetera. we now have mass transit in the we're going to tell you mass transit you can take subway, you can take a bus, you take an uber or a pool or elevate, as well. we are uniquely positioned to have all that information together and we can do the same thing for transportation, the same thing for local commerce eats restaurants are
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only the beginning and we can do the same thing for logistics. world iscompany in the positioned to solve local transportation, local commerce, logistics, as well, and i think we're in a spearhead position to do so. uber in fives years, 10 years? dara: with so much innovation and change going on, i have a time predicting for you what's going to happen in the next year but i do think what us is increasingly going into multimodal modes of transportation. up ourgoing to open marketplace to third-party transportation providers because it allot going to do ourselves. i think we're going to be much deeper partners in with the cities in which we operate. we want to bring demand to public transit, as well. a muchoing to have better enterprise solution, as well, both in terms of businesses and health and what you will see with eats is moving beyond the category of just restaurants, although that's a very category, into other categories of commerce, as well. it's going to be a pretty not just for the
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next year or five years but for the next 10 years here. it's really up to the the teams here. it's my job to bring together the talent who can help me that 10-year future. emily: the future of profitability, does profitability depend on self-driving car technology? those things separate? dara: i think we can get to profitability before example,ing, for becomes the majority of trips but i think that if you look forward and if you want to bring safety on the road, increase it, the number of people who die in accidents in the u.s. and abroad, there's no reason to have that many people hurt. most accidents are caused by error. and we can avoid that with computers and technologies and take the costme more mile down pretty significantly so fast forward 10, 15 years from now, autonomous will be a huge part of how people get around. it will be cheaper. it will be safer. now to make that
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happen. emily: can you get profitability technology?-driving dara: 15 years from now, no. any transportation company that self-driving as part of its strategy and that's build have a.t.g., we can out our self-driving technology specifically to serve our a huge and that's advantage that we have but any company 15 years from now in the transportation space that strong self driving strategy, whether they build it themselves or work with someone, for long.round emily: i'm asking you to think big, big picture. of siliconhistory valley, in the uber pantheon, look back oning to today, your two-year uber versary? dara: every great company has to go through tough times. you look at facebook, amazon five years after their i.p.o -- all of them went through periods where companies are tested. this is the moment where the
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mettle of uber is tested and i'm very confident that we're going to come out of this stronger than we ever have been before. khosrowshahi, thank you so much for joining us here on studio 1.0. dara: thank you very much. ♪
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>> almost 10:00 a.m. in hong kong and singapore. this is bloomberg markets. >> trade war tensions ease as an olive extends branch, trying to exempt some u.s. goods. president trump resuming his attack on the fed. resume q later. >> too far when it comes to opec they meet in abu some ofil is recovering the ground it lost on the fall bolton.
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>> does that get rid of one of the obstacles for a trade deal between china and the u.s. and some breakthroughs, positive signs coming through today with china perhaps linking you could or a gesture. >> we have that anniversary in on october 1. this is the position we find ourselves. equity markets. stellarg after that gain yesterday, just about one third of one percent lower and shanghai composite, australian market, all in the green currently. just quickly look green currently. quickly looking at what's happening elsewhere. on the bond

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