San Francisco — What is the true cost of an Uber ride? That simple question is often lost among the many controversies facing the ride-services company as it tries to hire a new CEO and resolve a bitter dispute with the old one, Travis Kalanick. But it may be the most important question of all when it comes to determining the value of Uber, which has built its business on massive subsidies to both riders and drivers, producing huge losses in the process, and it has yet to show that it can maintain growth without them. Uber will report second-quarter financials to investors this week, which will offer fresh insight on whether the company can get profitable any time soon. Although private, Uber has started releasing limited quarterly financial data, and in May reported a loss of $708m for the first quarter, down from $991m in the fourth quarter of 2016. The upcoming financial report will show further improvement on margins, according to an Uber executive, but the company continues to ...
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