Uber announced earlierSecond quarter financial results for fiscal year 2023In 92, Uber's revenue reached US$14 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.26%, while its profit reached US$10 million, a US$5.88 billion increase from the loss in the same period last year and a US$10 million increase from the previous quarter, making it the first time Uber has made a profit in its XNUMX years of existence.
Including profits from additional equity investments, Uber's profit last quarter was $3.94 million, a significant increase from the $26 billion loss in the same period last year.
Uber emphasized that the total amount of orders completed through its platform last quarter reached US$336 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Among them, the total amount of mobile-related orders reached US$167 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25%, and the total amount of food delivery-related orders reached US$156 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%.
In addition, the number of ride reservations increased by 22% compared to the same period last year, totaling 23 billion times, which translates to 2500 million rides per day, indicating that the number of ride reservations through Uber services continues to increase.
Since its establishment in 2009, Uber has incurred a lot of losses in order to attract more people to use its services and increase subsidies for drivers providing the services. The market even believes that its operating model cannot achieve profitability. However, because it continues to receive a lot of external investment, Uber can continue to maintain operations and try to increase its profit potential through different businesses.
Starting in 2019, Uber began to try to cut operating costs and withdraw unprofitable businesses, including non-core businesses such as autonomous driving. It even transferred businesses in Southeast Asia and other regions to reduce overall expenses.
Although Uber's car booking service was significantly affected during the epidemic, its food delivery services, including Uber Eats, have accumulated a significant increase in the number of users.
However, as the epidemic gradually eases, the number of people resuming use of Uber services has increased, but the overall cost of rides and food delivery services has increased significantly.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that the increase in service fees was primarily due to the impact of inflation, necessitating a cost-balancing hike. However, from a broader perspective, Khosrowshahi believes the service should cease its previous approach of competing on low prices and transition to a model that provides higher-quality service and greater user convenience.
Compared to its early days when it lowered service fees through large subsidies and snatched a large number of users from traditional taxi services, it also resulted in a large amount of investment funds being used to pay drivers, and even to pay fines for violating local laws. As a result, although it successfully captured the market in many areas, its losses continued to expand.
After Dara Khosrowshahi took over Uber, he actively adjusted its business model, tried to withdraw unprofitable development projects, and actively explored more profit possibilities.
Dara Khosrowshahi emphasized that over the past four years, Uber's partner drivers' weekly income has increased by about 4%-40%. At the same time, although the overall usage costs have increased, as many as 50 million people still use Uber services every month, showing that its services are still attractive enough.
In Uber's future plans, it will enable its platform to connect to more diversified service projects. Although it currently mainly provides car ride reservations and food delivery services, it hopes to connect more "mobility" related services in the future.
