Uber announces growth post-pandemic lockdowns, but posts $5.9billion loss
Ride-hailing and delivery firm Uber has announced a $5.9billion (£4.7billion) loss, mainly due to stakes held in other companies around the world.
The transport and logistics firm highlighted that nearly all of the losses recorded were as a result of the diminishing value of investments which included China's DiDi and Asia's Grab.
Despite the losses, Uber were upbeat about the progress made post-pandemic lockdowns.
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, said: “Our results demonstrate just how much progress we’ve made navigating out of the pandemic and how the power of our platform is differentiating our business performance.
“In April, Mobility Gross Bookings exceeded 2019 levels across all regions and use cases. There’s never been a more exciting time to innovate at Uber and we’re focused on executing our strategy to grow our platform profitably.”
Nelson Chai, Uber CFO, said: "We are pleased with our Q1 results, with outperformance of our quarterly guidance and strong incremental margins.
“With free cash flow approaching breakeven in Q1, we now expect to generate meaningful positive free cash flows for full-year 2022.”
Gross Bookings grew 35% year-over-year to $26.4 billion, with Mobility Gross Bookings accounting for $10.7 billion, up 58% based on the previous year. Trips during the quarter also grew 18% to 1.71 billion, or approximately 19 million trips per day on average.
Earlier this year regulators Transport for London (TfL) granted Uber a London private hire vehicle operator’s licence lasting 30 months. The global operator also sealed a trade recognition deal with GMB union, allowing the trade union to represent up to 70,000 Uber drivers across the UK.
Uber also reached an agreement to list New York City and San Francisco taxis on the Uber app through partnerships with CMT, Curb, Yellow Cab SF, and Flywheel Technologies. Interestingly it was revealed that Uber plan to bring every taxi on Uber by 2025 as part of its global vision.
