by: Erin Carson, Roadshow by CNET [Excerpt]

The ride-hailing company is losing a lot of money these days.

Uber’s attached to another big number. But it’s probably not happy about this one.

By the end of 2015, the ride-hailing company was valued at $62.5 billion. It closed $1.6 billion in financing in January 2015, raised $2 billion in Leveraged-Loan Market in June 2016 and raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund around that same time.

Today is a different story. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reports losses for Uber in first half of 2016 total at least $1.27 billion. […]

Altimeter analyst Brian Solis compares Uber to Amazon, another company that’s posted losses, but ultimately has much bigger ambitions than just e-commerce. The company wants to change the way you make purchases.

“Uber’s introduced an entirely new way to get from point A to point B not just in the United States, but around that world,” Solis said. “That comes at a tremendous cost.”

Uber won’t remain merely a way to catch a ride. It’s no secret Uber is testing self-driving cars, which could signal a business model shift in the future. It’s not a fast or sure fix. But, Solis said investors are willing to take the risk with the idea that something bigger is coming globally.

Along those lines, Solis isn’t worried about the effect of Uber’s finances on the sharing economy.

“Uber has long since left behind the sharing economy,” he said. Uber’s been a catalyst for the on-demand economy, which is evident every time you hear about a company that wants to be Uber of whatever.

It’s conditioning consumers to get what they want, when they want it, with a smartphone and an app he said, and that’s going to be far more powerful than the sharing economy.

“It’s not only paving the way for the future of on-demand transportation but it’s also changing consumer expectations for it to bring on-demand services across multiple industries,” he said. “Uber is much bigger than transportation.”