Isn't it actually spending hundreds of millions of VC dollars building a global monopoly?
As the article described, this is a network effects platform that gets better as it grows. This also gives them the ability to offer a better product at a lower price, squeezing out competitors.
The thing that amazes me the most about Uber is the flagrant disregard of local laws, and the lack of repercussions.
Uber is using / exploiting the regulator's method of enforcement, which tends to be persuading people to comply with the law and taking them to cour as a matter of last resort or for flagrant breaches.
We see this with companies who avoid (but not evade) taxes - the tax authorities tighten the rules, arrange for a partial payback, and continue scrutiny.
Sometimes this makes sense. Court cases are expensive and not guaranteed. At least this way some of the money is gathered.
But it does leave space for companies like Uber to operate in grey areas of law that's written in statute and the way the courts have interpreted it and the way the regulators enforce it.
The insurance is most worrying.
Amazes me as well. The extent to which corruption was rampant all around the world in the same industry.