Uber (UBER) announced its Q2 earnings ahead of the opening bell Tuesday, beating analysts' expectations on revenue, while reporting a $2.6 billion loss.
Here are the most important numbers from the announcement compared to what Wall Street was expecting, as compiled by Bloomberg.
Gross bookings: $29.1 billion versus $28.8 billion expected
Mobility gross bookings: $13.4 billion versus $12.5 billion expected
Delivery gross bookings $13.9 billion versus $14.4 billion expected
Earnings per share: -$1.33 versus -$0.25 expected
Uber said its gross bookings rose 33% year-over-year in the quarter, powered by a 55% jump in its mobility bookings and a 7% boost from its delivery businesses. Total revenue came in at $8.1 billion, a massive 105% year-over-year increase.
The company attributed its rise in revenue to changes to its U.K. mobility business model and the acquisition of Transplace by Uber Freight.
Shares of Uber were up more than 14% after the market opened.
Uber said $1.7 billion of its loss came from a pre-tax headwind related to revaluations of its stakes in Aurora, Zomato, and Grab. Aurora is the company that purchased Uber's former self-driving unit, while Zomato is the business that acquired Uber's food delivery business in India. Grab, meanwhile, is the firm that bought Uber's Southeast Asian ride-sharing business. Uber has stakes in all of the companies.
"We became a free cash flow generator in Q2, as we continued to scale our asset-light platform, and we will continue to build on that momentum,” said Nelson Chai, CFO. “This marks a new phase for Uber, self-funding future growth with disciplined capital allocation, while maximizing long-term returns for shareholders.”
Uber’s revenue has been on an upward trajectory for the last two years, even though the pandemic hammered its ride-sharing business. At the time, Uber invested heavily into its delivery arm, ensuring customers could order food from a litany of restaurants and corner stores.
The move buoyed the business when the number of riders and drivers was collapsing as a result of COVID lockdowns.
But inflation — and the steep rise in gas prices — is hitting consumers and drivers in their wallets. Drivers meanwhile, have been stung by high-flying fuel costs, though they’ve come back down from their peaks. In March, to offset the cost of fuel, Uber implemented gas surcharges on both Uber rides and orders through Uber Eats.
But according to the company, both surge and gas pricing surcharges hurt the take rate for rides in the quarter.
New driver signups were up 76% versus 2021, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the company's earnings call. What's more, the company said that it's going to provide more driver incentives in lagging markets.
In June, the company also reintroduced its UberX Share service that provides riders with a discount for sharing rides with other users. The company initially suspended the service at the onset of the pandemic.
More recently, Uber has been struck by backlash from an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into the company’s behavior prior to Khosrowshahi's tenure. In response to the investigation, Uber released a statement indicating the changes that it has since made to the business including investing in safety and pledging to run a zero-emissions fleet.
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