Uber Grows Revenue to $8.1 Billion, But Remains Unprofitable – Liberation

The US company has released its first financial results since the launch of UberFiles. It posted a net loss of $2.6 billion in the second quarter of 2022, despite earnings that beat forecasts.

Super profits are like two magnets repelling each other. When the American VTC giant approaches it, it pulls away. A new proof of this phenomenon came this Tuesday, during the company’s financial report. Since the release of the Uber files, a detailed investigation into the lobbying and manipulation used in Europe. Despite sales of $8.1 billion between April and June 2022, from the previous quarter, the company posted a net loss of $2.6 billion.

Uber’s management is still satisfied with this economic performance. Its quarterly revenue more than doubled from last year. “We are benefiting from the increased demand for transporting people and goods and the shift from a store cost model to a service cost model”, explains his boss Tara Khosrowshahi. More broadly, turnover related to car rides, Uber’s original operation, grew 120% to $3.6 billion. It grew 37% to $2.7 billion with food delivery launched in 2015 with UberEats.

However, if Uber’s results announcements follow each other and are identical, they are marked by consistently staggering losses. Revenue of $5.9 billion, $6.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Since the company began publishing its financial performance in early 2017, it has lost nearly $30 billion.

Massive investments

2021 was no exception. In this post-Covid fiscal year, Uber limited losses to $496 million (compared to $6.8 billion in 2020). And ended the year posting a net profit of $892 million in the fourth quarter. First, or an anomaly. During this period, the company did not invest as much as usual.

Uber is actually participating in a number of companies whose financial health is crumbling, attributing its immeasurable losses. The list includes Singaporean ride-hailing platform Grab, American self-driving vehicle start-up Aurora and Indian restaurant chain Zomato. Especially Didi Chuxing: a Chinese VTC listed on Wall Street in June 2021, which was withdrawn six months later due to its poor results.

Why persist in its money-losing acquisitions? By investing in several competing firms, the multinational seeks to improve its scale effect, or Measurement In English, a comment on the platform economy. Becoming “scalable” will allow Uber to spread its fixed costs across a larger number of rides around the world. So ultimately to achieve profit. The company’s business plan calls for a continued proliferation of mergers and acquisitions, even if it means spending more money. A different strategy from what was done a few years ago. Until 2020, Uber has invested heavily in the development of the autonomous car. Funding ventures came to an abrupt halt due to inefficiencies. However, it would certainly have been possible to mitigate the quarterly losses if the approximately 4 million drivers who work in less socially undesirable conditions were no longer required to be called.