What is the primary goal of any business? Without any doubt – money, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Profits allow companies to invest in R&D and bring new products and services to the market, thus making our life easier and more comfortable.
For example, we could compare a vehicle industry evolution over the past 50 years. Back in the day, a serious car accident would normally end up with someone´s death. Today, thanks to engineering genius and safety control people survive even 100 mph+ head-on collisions.
The same situation can be observed in the service industry. If you have access to the internet, most surely you have heard of Uber. In the beginning, its services included only ride-hailing but with time new services appeared, such as food delivery and scooter renting. What else can the company possibly offer? It appears to be that there is still plenty of opportunities.
Uber may be looking forward to launching the delivery of cannabis to the United States. The idea itself is not new, as back in 2014, the Leafly app was already offering cannabis deliveries. It was called "Eaze" and was located in San Francisco, where cannabis is legalized. What happened to Eaze? In 2020, news broke that Eaze was having a hard time, and to keep the company, they started laying off employees.
Eaze even tried to go beyond the online store and third-party product delivery. Instead of just doing logistics, they wanted to sell their products through their shipping warehouses. Does it mean that Uber´s idea could bring nothing but additional costs? Not necessarily. It is important to keep in mind that Uber will not have to invest tons of money to enter new markets/states. Secondly, everyone is already aware of Uber´s existence, thus marketing expenses will not be that high (a priori).
The company is also taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis, offering an unusual integration for its customers: now passengers have the opportunity to sign up for vaccinations. The presentation of the new program says that any client will be able to get vaccinated at Walgreens pharmacies (a joint agreement was signed between the two companies).
Why are they doing it? An early universal vaccination means that the number of trips will increase, and therefore the company's income. Uber did not limit itself to medical topics and announced cooperation with the largest American firms (Hertz, Avis Budget Group) for car rental. Starting this week, customers will be able to book rental cars through the Uber app in the United States.
The question now is when Uber will get on the train of crypto fever. Earlier this year, Uber CEO said that the company is considering accepting crypto for rides. "Just like we accept all kinds of local currency we are going to look at cryptocurrency and or bitcoin in terms of currency to transact. That's good for business, that's good for our riders and our eaters," he said.
In conclusion, it looks like this company's revenues have a bright future. Even though, the company still doesn't look cheap in terms of ratios. At the same time, the market expects Uber Technologies to deliver a year-over-year increase in earnings on lower revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended March 2021 (on May 5, 2021).