According to Uber, the company’s revenue is increasing, and customers are returning, providing a clear indication that its business will recover in the last three months of 2021 from the setback created by the epidemic.
Uber’s fortunes rose and fell in tandem with its investments in other firms throughout the quarter, which offered yet another evidence of this.
Uber’s revenue increased to $5.8 billion, representing an 83 percent growth from the same period the previous year and above expert projections. Aside from that, the firm reported its second successful quarter as a publicly traded company by earning $892 million, mostly from its investments in Grab, the Southeast Asian ride-hailing company that went public in December, and Aurora, the autonomous car startup.
As a result of its investment in Didi, the Chinese ride-hailing startup, Uber recorded a loss of $968 million in the same time the previous year, and a loss of $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2021 due to the same investment.
Uber said in its quarterly report that its investments in other ride-hailing businesses will most likely continue to create fluctuations in its revenues and losses in the future. The business’s chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, said at an analyst event in December that the company would hold on to some of its strategic investments, but that it would ultimately try to sell its holding in Didi Chuxing.
Uber’s deficit from operations for the third quarter was $550 million, a 37 percent decrease from the same period the previous year.
Because of an increase in coronavirus cases, Uber Eats has grown in popularity, allowing the company to depend on its meal delivery service to generate revenue at periods when its ride-hailing business has suffered. Uber claimed 118 million users in the fourth quarter, representing a 27 percent rise over the same period the previous year.
A statement from Mr. Khosrowshahi said, “Our findings reflect precisely how far we’ve gone since the beginning of the epidemic.” “While the Omicron version first started to have an effect on our company in late December, mobility has already begun to show signs of recovery.”
During after-hours trading on Wednesday, Uber’s stock price increased by almost 5%.
Uber’s rise in customers distinguishes it from Lyft, which is its biggest competitor in the United States. When it released its financial report on Tuesday, Lyft said that it had 18,728 users during the fourth quarter, representing a 49 percent rise over the same period last year but a tiny reduction over the previous quarter. The minor reduction in customers indicated that the winter wave of Omicron may have posed more hurdles to Lyft’s operations than previously thought.
Despite this, Lyft said that its income had increased by 70%, to $969.9 million, and that its losses had decreased to $258.6 million, a 43 percent decrease from the previous year.
According to analysts, the businesses of Uber and Lyft will most certainly continue to vary as a result of the pandemic’s impact on travel.
According to Tom White, a senior research analyst at the financial company D.A Davidson, “it’s going to ebb and flow.” While Lyft’s company was affected by coronavirus circumstances in North America, Uber’s business might be affected by other factors since it operates all over the globe, according to the expert.
