Ride-hail firm Uber has posted a larger than expected second quarter loss of USD5.5bn. The scale of the loss in the three month period to the end of June follows the company's IPO in May and sent its share price sliding. In the same quarter last year, Uber's loss was USD0.7bn.
Uber said the big loss was related to IPO related special items, but excluding those, the loss was still around USD1.3bn (significantly up on the previous quarter's loss of around USD1bn).
Despite the disappointing bottom line numbers, Uber did post gains in bookings. "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, 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."
"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," said Nelson Chai, CFO. "In Q2, Adjusted Net Revenue grew 26% year-over-year in constant currency and excluding our Driver Appreciation Award, which is an acceleration from Q1. Adjusted EBITDA also improved meaningfully from Q1, driven by a $337 million sequential improvement in Core Platform Contribution."
Uber also said that Uber Eats restaurant selection continues to improve, reaching 320,000 restaurant partners at the end of Q2 2019. New delivery fees (service and small-basket fees) resulted in improved Adjusted Net Revenue take rates quarter-over-quarter. It also said that it is seeing progress in two of ridesharing's priority markets: 'Germany was one of our fastest-growing Ridesharing countries during Q2 2019, as we are now operating in five large cities as of the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, Buenos Aires, Argentina has become the fifth largest city in the world based on trips, as its citizens take advantage of Ridesharing's convenience and the local income-earning opportunities provided by becoming a driver.'
