Friday, August 26, 2016
Travis Kalanick, chief executive officer of Uber Technologies Inc., in 2016. While attempting to expand globally, Uber has been on a fund-raising tear. Credit Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg
Uber has upended the transportation industry in the span of a few years. But the ride-hailing company has been losing a lot of money while doing so.
Uber recorded losses of roughly $1.2 billion in the first half of 2016, according to a person briefed on the company’s financial data, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. More than half of those losses, or around $750 million, accrued in the second quarter of this year, said the person.
An Uber spokesman declined to comment. Bloomberg previously reportedon Uber’s financial information.
The numbers underscore the difficulties that Uber and companies of its ilk face when trying to build and expand globally. As Uber has opened operations in numerous cities around the world, it has needed to spend to recruit drivers, to market its service and to take on regulators and established taxi companies. The company has also paid for driver and rider incentives in the form of subsidies.
As a result, Uber has been on a fund-raising tear. The company, valued at more than $62 billion by investors, has been raising billions of dollars every few months. In June, the company garnered $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, one of the single largest investments ever in a private technology company.
Much of Uber’s heavy losses in the first half of the year were attributed to the company paying subsidies to attract riders and drivers, especially inChina, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Uber spent the last two years fighting a war in China against Didi Chuxing, the incumbent ride-hailing giant in the country. Both companies spent billions of dollars subsidizing rides in the race to gain market share, said these people, a practice that could not be sustained in the long run.
That spending came to an end earlier this month, when Uber agreed to sell its subsidiary company, Uber China, to Didi. Didi also agreed to invest $1 billion into Uber Global. The deal curtails Uber’s biggest cash drain over the coming quarter, according to the person briefed on the company’s finances.
Still, Uber will continue spending elsewhere. The San Francisco-based company has stated publicly that it is willing to spend to fight competition in some of its most advanced markets, like the United States, where it is battling its rival Lyft.
There are some bright spots in Uber’s financials. The company posted significant revenue growth in the second quarter of this year, this person said, including a 31 percent jump to more than $5 billion in second-quarter bookings, a method of accounting that includes the money paid out to Uber drivers.
Net revenue, the amount Uber pulls in after paying out commissions to drivers, was roughly $960 million in the first quarter, before jumping to $1.1 billion in the second quarter, the person said.
Source: New York Times