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Uber’s Investors Are Still Growth-Hungry

Uber’s stock drove off a ditch, sinking 9% on Thursday after the ride-hailing giant published its third-quarter earnings report.

Photo of Uber at the New York Stock Exchange
Photo by NYCstock via iStock

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Uber’s stock drove into a ditch, sinking 9% on Thursday after the ride-hailing giant published its third-quarter earnings report. Following its ballyhooed attainment of profitability last year, Uber has now experienced a slowdown in user growth following a price hike. Uber blamed the price increases on heightened insurance costs, which it said it had to pass on to consumers. 

Growing Pains

Uber’s ride to profitability was a long one, and it’s not open roads from here on out. The company notched its first full-year profit in 2023, a mere 14 years after it was founded. This year it swung back to a loss in the first quarter, though it managed to restart the profitability engine again in time for its second-quarter report

In its third-quarter report, Uber said that revenue was up 20% year-over-year, and net income was $2.6 billion, though $1.7 billion of that came from the company’s equity investments. That beats last quarter’s profit of around $1 billion, roughly one-third of which came from equity investments. However, its slight slowdown in “gross bookings” — i.e., how much money it made off actual rides — made investors jumpy: 

  • Uber reported 19% year-over-year growth in the second quarter for its gross bookings, whereas the third quarter saw 16% growth. Its forecasted range for gross bookings in the fourth quarter also came in a little below analysts’ expectations.
  • CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that although price hikes are biting a little, consumers remain robust. He also emphasized in a call with CNBC that the company’s M&A strategy will be focused on “smaller deals that are much more closer to home” rather than big, “transformational deals.”

Khosrowshahi’s comments came in response to a question about reports that the company explored the possibility of acquiring Expedia, the travel company with a market cap of around $20 billion.

Brinkmanship Redefined: In a call with analysts, Khosrowshahi also said Uber was making good progress in its “autonomous strategy.” It’s pretty par for the course for CEOs to talk up self-driving cars as the future, although ironing out the kinks in the tech is still a pretty big, thorny question. According to a report from Business Insider, Tesla — which has pinned a lot of investor hopes on the idea that it will be a first mover in the robotaxi space — has been training its self-driving tech using a “critical intervention” team. Their goal? To drive around using the cars’ driver-assistance systems and only intervene at the last possible moment if (when) the car does something it shouldn’t.