Uber Technologies Inc said on Wednesday that growth in bookings for its ride-hailing and delivery services rose 6 percent in the latest quarter, the third quarter in a row that growth has remained in the single digits after double-digit growth for all of last year.
The San Francisco-based firm lost $1.07 billion for the three months ending Sept. 30, a 20 percent increase from the previous quarter but down 27 percent from a year ago, when the company posted its biggest publicly reported quarterly loss on the heels of the departure of Uber co-founder and former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick.
Uber is seeking to expand in freight hauling, food delivery and electric bikes and scooters as growth in its now decade-old ride-hailing business dwindles. The company, valued at $76 billion, faces pressure to show it can still grow enough to become profitable and satisfy investors in an initial public offering planned for some time next year. ADVERTISEMENT
Its adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $592 million, down from $614 million last quarter and $1.02 billion a year ago.
We may lose money on every transaction but we'll make it up in volume?
But seriously, I find it interesting there was absolutely no mention of their plans with self-driving vehicles.
Related Stories
Uber Lost $1.8 Billion in 2018 Despite Record Ride-Hailing, Food-Delivery Gains
Uber posted $50 billion in bookings for its ride-hailing and food-delivery services in 2018. However, the company still failed to turn a profit and its revenue growth slowed toward the end of last year, reports Reuters. That's bad news for Uber as the company looks to charm investors into an initial public offering (IPO) later this year.
Annual bookings were up 45 percent over 2017, according to Uber. Even then, the company's losses before taxes, depreciation, and other expenses still totaled $1.8 billion, down from the $2.2 billion loss the company posted in 2017. Uber's full-year revenue for 2018 was $11.3 billion, an increase of 43 percent from 2017.
Previously: Uber Posts $1 Billion Loss in Quarter as Growth in Bookings Slows
Uber remains unprofitable at the same time its drivers work 80-hour weeks for less than minimum wage and without health care packages. They must also cover vehicle costs including fuel, maintenance, and insurance.
The ride-hailing company Uber has made its long-awaited debut as a publicly traded stock, but investor demand for the May 10 initial public offering (IPO) fell short of the company's hopes. Part of the reason is a lingering question about its workforce: Does the still-unprofitable firm deliver low-cost rides for passengers at the expense of decent treatment for drivers, and could the resulting discontent undermine Uber's business model?
The issue over whether Uber drivers are employees (entitled to company benefits such as sick pay and retirement) or contractors (entitled to nothing) has been at the center of the labor controversy since the company launched a decade ago. It is still largely unresolved.
Earlier on SN:
New Research Confirms That Ride-Hailing Companies Are Causing a Ton of Traffic Congestion (2019)
Uber and Lyft Drivers to go on Strike (2019)
Uber Posts $1 Billion Loss in Quarter as Growth in Bookings Slows (2018)
and quite a few more...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dltaylor on Friday November 16 2018, @11:05AM (2 children)
They charge a lot, pay the drivers peanuts. Are the executives sucking that much out of the company, or is the R&D on the other ventures really costing that much?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @04:17PM
They pay people to become drivers for them. They are like a social network where they have to pay people to sign up.
There's huge subsidies they give on both sides: the drivers and the passengers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Friday November 16 2018, @07:23PM
They charge less than other people-movers, essentially providing the service at a loss, to undermine them and end up being the only solution (at which point they'll triple the price to be profitable).
They can do this because VCs are giving them the money to do it, hoping to cash in in phase 2. People taking Ubers are travelling on VC money, the more rides, the more loss (not a lot per ride, just enough to be the cheapest).
The goal is to end up a monopoly before running out of VC/IPO cash. Of course Lyft is doing the same, without the Sulfur smell, so it's not a certainty. Their best asset is being so close to IPO that the VCs don't just run across the street.
I don't know how much the self-driving cars and their army of lawyers are costing them, but I'm sure the C-suite is also padding their bank accounts nicely, just in case the IPO doesn't pan out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @11:11AM (8 children)
I'm not sure that one can have 'plans' and 'self-driving vehicles' in a single sentence, but i'm not a grammar nazi, so i must ask: can one 'plan' around non-existing things, or is speculation/dream/hope/investment/research/development/shenanigan a better word here?
I can see using the word plan in the sense of 'secret-plans', maybe followed by something speculative about 'acquiring from other secret and more advanced firms by means likely to not be on the up and up,' as 'in character'... but in the end, these things still seem to be unobtainium. more realistic, imo, would be something delusional about 'grand alliances' with car-makers; but i think they already played that card.
anyhow, going hiking often makes me feel like i already have one of these :) .. so on that note, i'm going to take a hike now! thanks for any feedback on the suitability of 'plan'.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday November 16 2018, @11:28AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 16 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)
Sorry, but that is a little bullshit. It wasn't a human that confused the AI and caused it to drive into a tractor trailer. Maybe Tesla's AI is just shit, but I also seriously doubt your implied Skynet-like "100% success rate" with all AI driven vehicles in industry.
Yeah, an environment with tractor trailers with white sides being confused by an AI driven by a human not paying the least bit attention to the AI's fuckups. Not saying they should cease to exist, but saying they're self-driving is a bit disingenuous. They attempt self-driving in some very restricted situations, and perform admirably enough to work under direct supervision. Like Mercedes with their cruise control keeping proper distance, and assisted lane changes. All which need to be performed with your hands on the damn wheel still. Not really self-driving is it?
There isn't a purely self-driving car in existence yet, that can handle rush hour traffic. Maybe some DoD applications where a rover can autonomously find its way across a desert, which is not the same as traffic and public infrastructure. It's not the humans that are creating failures in the AI, they're doing that perfectly well on their own.
That being said, when the AI finally reaches the performance metrics we need for safe and reliable operations, it will be humans becoming the weaker link. I hope it fucking happens soon, because distractions from technology are endemic and reaching a breaking point. The number of humans I see texting while driving increases every single day. Those people are a greater threat than some 95% perfect AI.
At the moment, I don't feel safe with either humans or AI on the road :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday November 18 2018, @12:27AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @11:46AM
They exist and are on the roads today.
Uber had to cut off its operations in Arizona and Pittsburgh due to their own failure, but others are testing them on the roads. Uber, Google, and others are aiming to provide an autonomous ride hailing service.
https://qz.com/1326155/uber-has-terminated-its-self-driving-car-operators-in-pittsburgh/ [qz.com]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-13/waymo-to-start-first-driverless-car-service-next-month [bloomberg.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Friday November 16 2018, @05:18PM
You certainly don't work in the software industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 16 2018, @06:21PM (1 child)
can one 'plan' around non-existing things,
Everything that has ever been built didn't exist when it was being planned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:27AM
Exactly!
Just like my plans for world domination based on room-temperature nuclear fusion and human-capacity time travel.
Just a couple of inventions, and the world will fall before me!
According to my plans you are doomed. DOOMED! I say.
/sarcasm off
There is a difference between planning to create something that does not exist (within the realm of what is possible) and a plan that is _based_ on those currently non-existing things.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday November 16 2018, @08:46PM
Too bad that this article about Waymo launching in a month didn't land two hours earlier. Self-driving vehicles have existed for a long time now by any reasonable definition, thus rendering your philosophical question moot.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/11/16/1234203 [soylentnews.org]
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday November 16 2018, @12:05PM (4 children)
I knew soylentnews would start showing ads some day.
:(
;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @12:52PM (3 children)
Big loss = BIG SAVINGS FOR RIDERS!!111
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday November 16 2018, @12:59PM (2 children)
Price dumping. Something notable is that investors subsidize about 60% of the ride [vice.com], giving the illusion to the rider that the price is 40% of what it should be. Works until either they run out of ventur capital or they succeed in knocking the bottom out of the taxi market. The whole thing appears to be just a scam to increase the foothold the "gig economy" has and eliminate hourly and salaried workers. They try to make zero-hour contracts somehow accepted while foisting the operating expenses off onto the workers themselves.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @01:09PM
It will be a tenuous foothold for the gig economy. They want to replace drivers with driverless cars, which could legitimately decrease costs to below that of taxi service. Google is planning a soft launch for their driverless car service next month (story will come out in 35 minutes).
It will take at least a few years for that transition to take place, but Uber will probably still be alive and kicking during that period, frustrating attempts to regulate it. The end result will be both taxi drivers and gig drivers kicked to the curb to die.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @02:05PM
UBER wouldn't exist if they had to hire the drivers as employees. They are a software company. Take it or leave it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 16 2018, @06:11PM (2 children)
I'm no accountant, but even a large company like Apple would feel a loss like that. $1 billion in one quarter? Damn.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday November 16 2018, @10:13PM
Meh, it all depends if it was part of the plan. Loss-leading should be punished by firing-squad. That's not competition, but the richest group winning by default. Spending money to ultimately kill most of your competitors, then raising prices and expanding, is an unfortunate reality in the toxic c-suite culture that rewards sociopathic behavior.
Unfortunately, loss-leading kinda works. Which gaming console was it again that lost a lot of money, but made it back up with fees on all the titles?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:15AM
Not if it's somebody else's money, like in Uber.
(Score: 1) by NaomiPierce on Friday December 07 2018, @07:35AM
Companies like UBER knows that the only method to make shares liquid is to IPO. Before investing in any company, you should have a proper analysis about why you want to put your hard-earned money and how you can make it profitable. The best investors strategies described here https://preipopros.com/#uber [preipopros.com] for the investors to know the right portfolio for investment.