Lyft says it’s growing faster than Uber
Lyft says it’s growing faster than archrival Uber — although it doesn’t give specific numbers or acknowledge that it’s starting from a smaller base.
The San Francisco ride-hailing company on Monday said its fourth-quarter revenue grew 160 percent year over year, compared with a 61 percent growth rate for Uber.
Brian Roberts, Lyft chief financial officer, said in a statement that the company has “recently achieved record market share levels nationwide.”
After a scandal-plagued year for Uber that included a #deleteUber campaign, Lyft made inroads on its rival, although Uber retains a much bigger market share, various studies have shown.
Lyft, which operates only in the United States and Toronto, said it’s now providing more than 10 million rides a week. Uber, which is in 78
countries, gave 4 billion rides in 2017, which averages to 77 million a week.
Both companies are privately held, and are selective about what financial information they share.
Uber, however, has provided more specifics on its recent performance, including that for 2017 it lost $4.5 billion on revenue of $7.5 billion. Lyft has not said how much it lost in 2017.
Gross bookings — the money passengers pay for rides, including both Uber’s and the driver’s cut — hit $11.1 billion in the final quarter of 2017, compared with $6.9 billion a year earlier. Its revenue for that quarter was $2.26 billion.