User/Subscriber Economics: An Alternative View of Uber's Value
Aswath Damodaran
Abstract
In the week since I posted my Uber valuation, I have received many suggestions on what I should have done differently in the valuation, with many of you arguing that I was being a over optimistic in my forecasts of total market, market share and margin improvements and some of you positing that I was too pessimistic.
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Isaac Chan
10/4/2026
This piece was one of the hardest to follow for a long time. Damodaran's explanations of the high-level differences between an aggregated vs a disaggregated valuation were masterclasses in teaching, and I might be able to adapt some of these concepts in my credit papers, but I could not get his numbers and he provides little explanation. Lots of catch-up work to do. The number of assumptions needed to do a user-based disaggregated valuation were astounding and it is so easy to tweak just a few growth rates to make wildly different valuations, so I don't know why Damodaran thought it was a good argument to show that his disaggregated valuation matches his aggregate DCF. If anything this piece pushed me to search for project finance modelling guidance for the Powerwell case.