Uber Records First Annual Profit (apnews.com) 33
In a first for Uber since becoming a public company, the ride-hailing service posted its first full-year profit and its stock hit an all-time high Wednesday. "Like its final year as a private company, the last time Uber turned a profit, it got a huge tailwind from investments that helped fuel profits, $1 billion in 2023," reports the Associated Press. "The difference is that Uber has started making money from operations." From the report: Uber and other ride-share companies struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, whose stock recently joined the S&P 500 index, saw its ride-hailing business stymied as government lockdowns kept millions at home. But Uber has focused on cutting costs and, during the pandemic, building up a then-nascent food-delivery division, which has since become a major revenue driver. Uber's ride-hailing service, meanwhile, has gradually bounced back and the numbers from the fourth quarter suggest both are trending in the right direction.
Delivery revenue grew 6%, and revenue for the ride-share part of the business climbed 34%. Industry analysts also noted growth in the company's membership platform. "Uber One now has roughly 19 million members across 25 countries, wrote William Blair's Ralph Schackart. "Uber One members generate roughly 30% of mobility and delivery gross bookings, up roughly 700 basis points year-over-year." Revenue totaled $9.94 billion, beating Wall Street projections for $9.75 billion. Gross bookings surged 22% from the prior-year period to $37.6 billion. For the year, Uber posted a profit of $1.89 billion, or 87 cents per share, on revenue of $37.28 billion.
Delivery revenue grew 6%, and revenue for the ride-share part of the business climbed 34%. Industry analysts also noted growth in the company's membership platform. "Uber One now has roughly 19 million members across 25 countries, wrote William Blair's Ralph Schackart. "Uber One members generate roughly 30% of mobility and delivery gross bookings, up roughly 700 basis points year-over-year." Revenue totaled $9.94 billion, beating Wall Street projections for $9.75 billion. Gross bookings surged 22% from the prior-year period to $37.6 billion. For the year, Uber posted a profit of $1.89 billion, or 87 cents per share, on revenue of $37.28 billion.
Now we're just waiting... (Score:4, Funny)
Now we're just waiting for the drivers to record profits. Then it will be a sustainable business model.
Re:Now we're just waiting... (Score:4, Interesting)
The drivers are never going to make profits. That's not the business model. Uber has higher costs compared to traditional taxi business Uber does not own a fleet, so they don't get the economy of scale benefits on maintainting the vehicles. What Uber does have is massive costs that a traditional taxi company does not have. App development, although I don't understand how is it possible to sink so much money into it. I'm sure the execs are just looting the company. Retarded side projects like their self-driving car... What Uber has of actual value is network effect. That's it. But their higher costs still have to be offset by something. Since they cannot raise capital much anymore, there is only two places to go. Fuck the drivers, and fuck the customers.
Fuck the drivers as in my guess is it's completely sustainable for Uber to find a new sucker for every discarded one who wore down their car driving for them, and now cannot afford to fix it with what Uber has paid them for it. Not sustainable for the driver though, who was slowly bled out of the value stored in their car, and now has to figure out their life without one, and nothing to show for it. Uber now has partner fleets also, which I guess is a way to do the same scam on a bigger scale.
Fuck the customers as in my guess is also that it's a completely sustainable business in e.g. NY, where they killed the taxi business by "persuading" the governance that they are, in fact, not a taxi company, undercutting the competition with dumping prices financed by investor money, and will be able to dump again any moment someone thinks they might have another go at it. Not sustainable for the customer though, who now has to suffer higher prices, worse service, and lack of legal protection, and to put the cherry on topo, you just know the NYC govt have their fingers up their asses thinking about all of it as usual.
Uber is what it is. A cynical play on our contemporary social, financial and political situation. They are going to be allowed to wipe the floor, too. A sustainable business model as long as there is a society to leech off of.
Re: Now we're just waiting... (Score:1)
Can someone tell me why they still Exist? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Are there still places Uber cannot operate?
I can only assume that there is no good way to outlaw Uber (in United States), or that would have been done already in some state. There are different states that require certain things (e.g., in Florida a law requires driver background checks)
Not so in some other countries. From Wikipedia: On November 18, 2016, the Ãstre Landsret ruled that Uber is an illegal taxi service. Uber shut operations in Denmark in April 2017.
What about the whole Taxi medallion thing?
Also from Wikpedia: In Boston, the price of the medallion went from $625,000 in 20
Re:Can someone tell me why they still Exist? (Score:5, Informative)
Are there still places Uber cannot operate?
I can only assume that there is no good way to outlaw Uber (in United States), or that would have been done already.
Your assumption is wrong.
Here is the history:
In the US, it is illegal to drive people for hire without a special license from the state. The drivers (and Uber, in facilitating them) were originally operating illegally. To be a taxi driver, you need authorization (such as a medallion). To be a private driver for hire, you need (one of several varieties of commercial) For-Hire license. Uber drivers were illegally operating, in the eyes of the state, as unlicensed "limousine" drivers. The various states began to (threaten, or actually) enforce these laws. This resulted in a negotiation where the states agreed to create a new category of For-Hire vehicles called "Transportation Network Companies" under which Uber drivers could be licensed. There are requirements for background checks, and various operating rules. In some states, the vehicle has to also display a special registration sticker. Drivers still have to apply to the state to be registered as a TNC and meet various requirements.
Note that an Uber driver is not a taxi driver. Taxis of course are highly regulated, and their special power is that they can pick up a hail from someone on the street. An Uber cannot ever do that.
Also, TNC drivers cannot ever pick up passengers except as dispatched on the app. They can't make a private arrangement to pick up someone, for example. Because unless operating under their TNC authorization, they would once again be considered random unlicensed illegal for-hire (limo) drivers. Although you apparently didn't know before, without permission from the state, it is illegal for individuals to give rides for hire.
I think Uber and Lyft have made arrangements with all the states and localities in the US at this point. Various different arrangements - see CA and NYC, for example. Some other companies, such as Empower, only have arrangements to operate in a few places.
Check out Empower; it's a "ride-share" company just like Uber and Lyft, except the drivers really are contractors and they get to keep "all" the money.
Re: (Score:2)
Here is the history:
Thank you! /.
That's why people still come to
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be hesitant to declare it universally illegal to drive for hire in the USA without permit, that's a state level, and sometimes even a city level thing. There are even what I'd call cartels involved with airports over who has the right to pick up customers there.
The UK had the same distinction before (Score:2)
With Taxis and Private Hire cars. When Uber arrived it destroyed much of the profit of real taxis because an Uber could be hailed electronically and so in effect became almost as available as a taxi; before you had to book with the private hire firm and wait for the car to arrive.
There are a lot of miserable taxi drivers...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.theverge.com/2022/... [theverge.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Are there still places Uber cannot operate?
snark - The average American city seems to present insurmountable barriers to trouble free operation. - /snark
Expensive rides with people that are usually pretty nice folks.
It was the constant waking me up in the middle of sleeping (I've no set schedule and it is not usually "business" hours) really got my ire up. Add in that the settings seem to go back to "annoy the shit out of our customers" whenever there was a (frequent) silent update. I assume that's what was going on anyway. I spent 45 minutes with G
Uber ensh!tification (Score:4, Insightful)
Then, the drivers learned how to game the system.
Uber has not done enough to discourage them from dumping jobs after accepting them.
After many experiences of needing to get somewhere by a given time, allowing an extra hour for the Uber 'dump and run', and getting burned by Uber again and again... our family has now abandoned Uber entirely. Despite all their faults, taxis turn up.
Re: (Score:2)
Uber was great for a while.
Then, the drivers learned how to game the system.
Uber has not done enough to discourage them from dumping jobs after accepting them.
Although it's been in the news very recently, Uber drivers have been doing this since the beginning. They are breaking the "Cancellation Fee" rules and scamming both Uber and the passenger (who they never pick up). There are several tactics that can be used to effect the scam.
There is a discussion web site where Uber (and Lyft etc) drivers hang out and share stories, tactics, technical, and other information. Not all the drivers know about it, but lots of them do and it covers the whole USA. The drivers giv
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is also something I'd like to know. If I request an Uber, they never show up at my location, it is THEY who cancel the ride, how would I get charged? You try it, I'm disputing the cancellation fee with my credit card company and never using Uber again.
Though as a disclaimer, I've never actually used Uber, and used Lyft like twice.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The main problem for me is that the drivers don't want to drive out of the CBD to pick up rides.
I live in Oz, and whilst my city is not as big as some American cities, its still 1.5M people in a 50km radius. Now, I am not joking when I say that I live 12 minutes drive from the centre of the city and Uber drivers dump my rides all the time because its too far out.
Its just not worth t
Re: (Score:2)
I found that strange on my last trip to Australia. I've never had a problem with Uber in Europe or America, but trying to get an Uber around Australia was a PITA.
Re: (Score:2)
No customers do not pay if they get cancelled by the driver. Your price is set prior to accepting a route, that is the price you pay regardless of how many drivers cancel on you before you get picked up. This all happens in the background and the customer just gets automagically assigned another driver without any cost to themselves other than the stress of seeing the time-to-pickup number change.
Re: (Score:2)
Your information is most likely 10 years out of date. Uber was relatively young then.
Drivers can no longer collect the cancellation fee if they cancel the ride themselves. They only get the fee if the cancellation is done by the passenger, and even then, the cancellation fee is only taken if the cancellation is done after one minute AND the Uber is on schedule to arrive later than originally predicted. In other words, if the Uber is stuck in traffic, the passenger can cancel and won't be charged anything.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I made a slight mistake.
The Uber driver can also get the cancelation fee if the driver is arrives at the right location and waits for the allotted time. But that too is not what you're describing.
Again, 10 years is a long time. The technology has drastically improved since then.
Re: (Score:2)
Uber was great for a while.
Then, the drivers learned how to game the system.
Uber has not done enough to discourage them from dumping jobs after accepting them.
After many experiences of needing to get somewhere by a given time, allowing an extra hour for the Uber 'dump and run', and getting burned by Uber again and again... our family has now abandoned Uber entirely. Despite all their faults, taxis turn up.
Why did you think it would be anything but? The company was based on ignoring laws to undercut taxis, then started openly sabotaging it's competition. I'm glad I've refused to use Uber, the few times I've used them I've asked "why do you think a clapped out Citroen Saxo with dirty seats is better than a minicab (private hire)"? Now I hear the same complaints that you've mentioned "My damned uber cancelled again" and I wonder why he's so reluctant to get a normal taxi who'll actually turn up (or the half doz
Uber is doing well (Score:2)
Their wage-slave independent contractor "driver-partners" with zero independence though, not so much.
Re: (Score:3)
Their wage-slave independent contractor "driver-partners" with zero independence though, not so much.
They have a huge amount of independence now, compared to how Uber (and Lyft) originally operated. Uber has made a succession of major changes in policy, algorithm, and how the app works. Drivers today have a tremendous amount of autonomy, compared to how it worked a decade ago. Nevertheless, they're still pretty good and screwed, and can hardly make a dime.
A company that actually treats their drivers like contractors (actually lets the drivers choose which rides to do, no penalties, drivers keep 100% of the
Re: (Score:2)
How does Empower make money then?
Re: (Score:3)
How does Empower make money then?
You could check them out for all the details, but the short answer is that they provide their dispatch service to drivers on a subscription basis.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks!
Re: (Score:2)
They have a huge amount of independence now, compared to how Uber (and Lyft) originally operated.
But this will also depend on the location.
In California for instance, drivers got a lot more independence since they were sued them for treating their drivers too much like employees (and not like contractors), so in California, the drivers have a lot more freedom. But in places like Texas, drivers are still being micromanaged by the app. It's a different experience.
Also, the app has a ranking of drivers, and the platinum and diamond drivers have a lot more freedom and information than the blue, pro, and go
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)