- Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company is on track to achieve profitability by the fourth quarter of 2020
During an earnings call this week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company is on track to achieve profitability by the fourth quarter of 2020. However, Uber is still expecting to lose a total of over $1 billion this year.
Khosrowshahi said that the company is cutting costs and is generating more repeat customer business. Plus the company is going to try to increase the use of premium ride services. And Uber is planning to accelerate growth for the company’s food delivery operation Uber Eats.
As of Q4 2019, Uber saw 111 million global monthly active users. And the company’s total revenue increased 37% to $4.07 billion on an annual basis. The net losses increased to $1.1 billion compared to a loss of $887 million a year earlier. A majority of the revenue was from the ride-hailing service.
The ride-hailing business increased by 20% between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019. And the ride-hailing service is profitable on an EBITDA basis. For the last 3 months of 2019, the rides service earned $742 million — which is higher than the last quarter. This is a significant jump from the $195 million Uber earned in the same quarter last year.
Uber Eats is still continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Gross bookings for Uber’s food delivery service operation jumped 71% between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019. However, Uber Eats saw a loss of $461 million on an EBITDA basis in Q4 2019. Last month, Uber sold its food ordering service in India to Zomato. And Uber also gained a stake in Zomato.
Back in November, Uber said it would be profitable on an adjusted basis by the end of 2021 excluding expenses for stock-based compensation. For the full year 2020, Uber said it was still expecting an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.25 billion to $1.45 billion.
