Ride-hailing service Uber has reported its third-quarter earnings. The report came after the bell on Thursday, and although its shares suffered an initial dip, shares were up 1 percent in after-hours trading.
The company recorded loss per share of $1.28 compared to the estimate of 33 cents, according to Refinitiv. The company recorded revenue of $4.8 billion compared to the expectation of $4.4 billion, according to Refinitiv.
The company reported a net loss of $2.4 billion for the third quarter and this is majorly because of a drop in the value of its investment holdings, especially in Chinese mobility company Didi. According to the company, its stakes in Joby, Zomato and Aurora assisted in offsetting some of its losses. Net loss from the same period a year ago was $1.0 billion.
The ride-hailing giant reported its first profitable quarter since it launched over ten years ago. Its first adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) profit met its end-of-year target. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA profit of $8 million. This figure is up from an EBITDA loss of $507 million recorded in the second quarter.
Although the gap is continually narrowing, Uber’s delivery revenue continues to outperform the company’s core business – ride-hailing. Delivery revenue stood at $2.24 billion in the quarter while for ride-hailing services, revenue was $2.2 billion. The company recorded $402 million for freight revenue. The company also told its shareholders that its number of delivery merchants grew to over 780,000.
The company’s food delivery Uber Eats managed to hold up irrespective of the restrictions businesses like it are facing as a result of the pandemic. The pandemic has slowly begun to ease up and this is the major reason the company causing a reduction in orders from home which spiked during pandemic-induced lockdowns.
Uber’s mobility business had gross bookings worth $9.9 billion and is up 67 percent YoY. Its delivery business had gross bookings worth $12.8 billion and is up over 50 percent YoY. The supply and demand imbalances induced by the pandemic is still a challenge for the company as it causes a surge in prices and an increase in wait times.
Uber’s active mobility drivers rose almost 60 percent YoY in the third quarter, showing signs of recovery in the United States. The company said trips to and from airports grew 35 percent quarter over quarter and 203 percent YoY, which is another sign of recovery.
1.64 billion trips were recorded during the third quarter. This figure is up 9 percent from the previous quarter and 39 percent from the same period in the last year. Monthly active users increased to 109 million, up 8 percent from the second quarter, and drivers and couriers earned a total of $8.6 billion in the third quarter.
Uber says it expects gross bookings between $25 and $26 billion in the fourth quarter. It also expects a positive adjusted EBITDA of $25 to $75 million.
The company’s biggest American competitor Lyft also reported quite impressive earnings that show that the company is making a gradual recovery from the effects the pandemic had on its business.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
