Uber Finally Made Money ⇥ wsj.com

Preetika Rana, Wall Street Journal:

Uber Technologies posted its first-ever operating profit in the second quarter, a milestone in its long-term efforts to stem losses in its businesses carrying people and delivering food.

Since its 2009 founding, Uber has not once proved it is actually profitable — until now. Two reasons it has been able to achieve this milestone are because it is showing more ads — which is not a convincing demonstration that its core model of underpaying drivers in pirate taxis is sustainable — and because it is increasing its prices while cutting driver earnings. The end of free money is requiring Uber to behave like a real business.