Uber Reports Record $5.2 Billion Loss In Second Quarter Of The Year

Uber posted a $5.2 billion loss in the second quarter of 2019, which is the ride-hailing company’s largest ever reported loss.

That’s a staggering figure, but the bulk of it ($3.9 billion) is stock-based compensation expenses related to Uber’s IPO, which is an one-time cost.

In addition, the company reported that revenue growth slowed to 14 percent, at $3.2 billion, falling short of analysts’ estimates of $3.36 billion, Reuters reports. The company’s core ride-hailing business alone grew its revenue by 2 percent, to $2.3 billion.

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“Our platform strategy continues to deliver strong results, with Trips up 35% and Gross Bookings up 37% in constant currency, compared to the second quarter of last year,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO. “In July, the Uber platform reached over 100 million Monthly Active Platform Consumers for the first time, as we become a more and more integral part of everyday life in cities around the world.”

Moreover, while the amount of passengers spent on trips rose by 20 percent, the amount kept by Uber after paying its drivers increased just by 4 percent.

Khosrowshahi said that the competitive environment was starting to rationalize and had been “progressively improving” since the first quarter. He added that this year would be the peak for investment, expecting smaller losses for 2020 and 2021.

Uber saw its costs rising by 147 percent to $8.65 billion this quarter, which includes a sharp rise in research and development spending.

“While we will continue to invest aggressively in growth, we also want it to be healthy growth, and this quarter we made good progress in that direction,” Nelson Chai, Uber’s Chief Financial Officer said.