The Uber IPO caps an era characterized by big investments in relatively small ideas and a stubborn unwillingness to grapple with the world's real problems.
Uber debuted below its IPO price on Friday and ended up down more than 7%, crawling across the finish line with a valuation below $80 billion.
It kicked off around 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession, and has been fueled in part by a decade of record-low interest rates. As investors searched for ways to stay ahead of inflation, they poured money into the high-risk/high-reward venture capital sector, hoping for another Google or Facebook.
Betting on growth over profits isn't necessarily a bad investment strategy — many successful tech giants today, including Amazon, Salesforce and Netflix lost money or had razor-thin margins for years. But many of the newer companies have not explained a clear path to sustained and profitable growth. It's also worth remembering that Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook all went public with profits.
To be fair, these traits have been pervasive in the tech industry almost since it started, and it's not clear whether the current crop of start-ups is any worse than past generations, or whether more voices are calling attention to the disparity this time around. Visible representations of income inequality. Income inequality is a national problem, not specific to the tech industry or Silicon Valley. But expressions of this inequality in the area are particularly obvious. San Francisco housing has become nearly unaffordable while homelessness remains highly visible and seemingly unsolvable.
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