Uber’s first-quarter revenue more than doubles to $6.9bn as bookings increase
Uber’s revenue surged in the first quarter of the year, underpinned by a recovery in its ride-hailing and delivery businesses from January to March.
The California-based company’s revenue in the three months to the end of March rose by 136 per cent annually to more than $6.9 billion, surpassing analysts’ estimate of $6.1bn, as gross bookings grew by 35 per cent a year to $26.4bn.
Uber was trading about 4.65 per cent lower at $28.10 a share on Thursday. The share price is down more than 33 per cent since the start of the year.
The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) stood at $168 million during the quarter, compared with a loss of $359m in the same period a year ago.
The results marked Uber’s third profitable quarter. Net loss during the period widened to $5.9bn, compared to $108m in the same period last year.
That includes a $5.6bn headwind relating to Uber’s equity investments, primarily due to unrealised losses related to the revaluation of Uber’s Grab, Aurora and Didi stakes, the company said on Wednesday.
“Our results demonstrate just how much progress we have made navigating out of the pandemic and how the power of our platform is differentiating our business performance,” said chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Uber’s overall business primarily relied on its delivery unit, which includes Uber Eats. However, the revenue of its mobility division slightly surpassed delivery sales in the past quarter.
The company’s mobility business accounted for about 36.7 per cent of overall revenue during the reporting period, with mobility sales surging 195 per cent annually to more than $2.5bn. Uber’s delivery business grew by 44 per cent annually to $2.5bn in the threemonth period while its freight division improved by 505 per cent to $1.8bn.
“In April, mobility gross bookings exceeded 2019 levels across all regions and use cases,” Mr Khosrowshahi said.
“There has never been a more exciting time to innovate at Uber and we are focused on executing our strategy to grow our platform profitably.”
Uber’s delivery gross bookings increased by 12 per cent a year during the first quarter to $13.9bn while mobility gross bookings rose by 58 per cent to $10.7bn.
Airport bookings represented 13 per cent of mobility gross bookings in the quarter, compared with 15 per cent before the pandemic, outpacing the segment’s recovery as consumer travel trends improved, the company said.
Uber’s revenue in the US and Canada accounted for 66.6 per cent of the company’s total sales in the first quarter, jumping by about 147 per cent a year to more than $4.6bn.
Turnover grew by 43 per cent in Latin America to $432m and by about 400 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to $1.1bn. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region increased by about 39 per cent to $733m.
“We are pleased with our first-quarter results, with outperformance of our quarterly guidance and strong incremental margins,” said Nelson Chai, Uber’s chief financial officer. “With free cash flow approaching breakeven in the first quarter, we now expect to generate meaningful positive free cash flows for full-year 2022.”
The company said unrestricted cash and cash equivalents stood at $4.2bn as of March 31, a quarterly drop of about 2.3 per cent. Uber’s net cash provided by operating activities was $15m.
Uber expects gross bookings of $28.5bn to $29.5bn with an adjusted ebitda of $240m to $270m in the current quarter ending June 30.
The number of monthly active platform consumers reached 115 million from January to March, increasing by 17 per cent annually but dropping by 2.5 per cent from the previous quarter.
Trips during the first-quarter period grew by 18 per cent a year to 1.71 billion, or about 18.9 million trips per day on average, Uber said.
Drivers and couriers earned about $9bn in the quarter, up 39 per cent on an annual basis.