Uber Announces Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019

Revenue of $4.1 billion, growing 37% year-over-year or 39% on a constant currency basis

Rides Adjusted EBITDA of $742 million, with continued margin expansion

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2019.

Financial Highlights for Fourth Quarter 2019

• Gross Bookings grew $4.0 billion year-over-year to $18.1 billion, representing 28% year-over-year growth, or 30% on a constant currency basis, with Rides and Eats growing 20% and 73% year-over-year, respectively, on a constant currency basis.
• Revenue grew 37% year-over-year, or 39% on a constant currency basis, up from 30% in the third quarter of 2019.
• Adjusted Net Revenue (“ANR”) grew 41% year-over-year, or 43% on a constant currency basis, despite seasonal impacts on both Rides and Eats ANR take rates. Take rates expanded over 200 bps and 300 bps year-over-year for Rides and Eats, respectively.
• Net loss attributable to Uber Technologies, Inc. of $1.1 billion, which includes $243 million in stock-based compensation expense.
• Rides Adjusted EBITDA delivered a $742 million profit and 24.3% margin as a percentage of Rides revenue, or 24.4% margin as a percentage of Rides ANR, covering our Corporate G&A and Platform R&D cost by $98 million, and achieving absolute dollar and margin improvement in every quarter of 2019.
• Eats Adjusted EBITDA of $(461) million, driven by increased investments in several key markets that delivered category position improvement.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $(615) million, reflecting year-over-year margin improvement of over $200 million.
• Unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $11.3 billion.

“2019 was a transformational year for Uber and I’m gratified by our progress, steadily delivering against the commitments we’ve made to our shareholders on our path to profitability,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO. “We recognize that the era of growth at all costs is over. In a world where investors increasingly demand not just growth, but profitable growth, we are well-positioned to win through continuous innovation, excellent execution, and the unrivaled scale of our global platform.”

“Our revenue growth continued to accelerate in Q4, with adjusted net revenue up 43% year-over-year in constant currency,” said Nelson Chai, CFO. “We consistently outperformed our adjusted EBITDA targets in 2019, including in the fourth quarter. Our focus on disciplined capital allocation is part and parcel to achieving our financial goals, and the recent sale of our India Eats business further demonstrates that commitment.”

Operating Highlights for the Fourth Quarter 2019

Platform

• Global brand strength drove 2019 download leadership in 2 key segments – Most downloaded app globally in both Rideshare (Uber app) and Food Delivery (Uber Eats) categories on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store (source: Sensor Tower); Identified as one of the top 100 U.S. brands, ranked #1 on the most innovative brand and great consumer experience rankings, by WPP and Kantar (source: Kantar).
• Robust MAPC growth – We added 20 million MAPCs year-over-year to reach 111 million, while cross platform users grew 68%.

Rides

• Rides premium category continued rapid expansion – We launched Uber Comfort in Latin America and EMEA, following the success of our U.S. launch. Comfort helped to drive 54% year-over-year growth in our premium Rides offerings globally.
• UberX trip growth remained robust – Rides trips grew 23% in Q4, with trips ex-shared rides growing 26%, consistent with Q3.
• Key new markets growing rapidly – High-priority new markets (Argentina, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Spain) delivered Gross Bookings growth in Q4 that was more than four times overall Rides Gross Bookings growth, on a constant currency basis.
• Airport business outgrows overall Rides – In Q4 2019 our Airport business outgrew overall Rides. We now serve over 650 airports globally and continue to see our airport riders prefer our premium products. In 2020, we will continue to roll out our PIN product (riders receive a PIN and take it to the driver next in line rather than seeking out a specific driver), which has been well-received by riders and by airports.
• Uber for Business (U4B) expanding – Gross Bookings from our business travel offering continued to accelerate in Q4 to $1.2 billion, fueled by 75% growth in managed business accounts and through vertical initiatives such as Uber Health, which itself grew over 300% YoY and now works with some of the largest non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) brokers in the U.S.
• U.S. Rides insurance carrier added – We added Liberty Mutual as a U.S. Rides insurance provider. We also expanded our partnerships with Progressive and Farmers, two existing U.S. Rides insurance partners. During Q4 2019, Rides insurance costs were down year-over-year and quarter-over quarter as a percentage of Gross Bookings and ANR.
• Appealing London TfL decision – Uber will continue to operate in London as we appeal Transport for London’s decision to not renew our license. We also plan to roll out additional systems to strengthen identity confirmation of drivers, including a facial matching process, which we believe are the most robust in the industry.
• Released U.S. Safety Report – Published the first comprehensive publication of its kind, sharing details on Uber’s safety progress and data related to reports of the most serious safety incidents occurring on our platform.

Other Segments

• Eats achieves comparable Gross Bookings in a top 10 Rides country – As proof of the strength of our platform, in only three years since launch, Eats has achieved comparable Gross Bookings to Rides in Australia despite Rides having launched eight years ago.
• Eats subscriptions continue expansion – Eats subscriptions rolled out to all U.S. cities (ex-California) and to Taiwan and South Africa, our first international markets to launch this product.
• Freight continued to expand its offering to carriers – In-app bundles, which allow carriers to book multiple loads at once, have reduced empty miles versus non-Uber Freight matched bundles. We also launched a web portal geared towards trucking fleets in late Q3, with web-based carriers scaling to an average of 10% of overall supply in Q4.
• JUMP launched new markets and won permits in key cities – Launched scooters in San Francisco, bikes in Rome, and scooters in São Paulo. JUMP also won permits to expand in key markets such as Washington, D.C. and four markets across Australia and New Zealand, which complement the Uber Platform. In Washington, D.C., our permit win will make us the largest combined dockless fleet operator in the city across bikes and scooters.

Recent Developments

• Divested India Eats business – Zomato, a popular food app in India, acquired our food delivery business in India, in-line with our strategy to focus on markets where we can achieve a leading position. Eats ANR take rate would have been 10.1% in Q4 2019 excluding the impact of Uber Eats in India.
• Completed the previously announced acquisition of Careem – We completed the Careem acquisition following the approval of the transaction in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which represent substantially all of the major markets where regulatory approval was required. We have not received regulatory approval in Pakistan, Qatar and Morocco to date and the transaction will not close in these countries until approval from the relevant competition authorities is obtained.
• Introduced new product features in California – Introduced a number of product and policy changes in California to further strengthen the independence of drivers and delivery people, protect their ability to work flexibly, and clarify Uber’s role as a marketplace.

Webcast and conference call information

A live audio webcast of our fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019 earnings release call will be available at https://investor.uber.com/, along with the earnings press release and slide presentation. The call begins on February 6, 2020 at 1:30 PM (PT) / 4:30 PM (ET). This press release, including the reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to their nearest comparable GAAP measures, is also available on that site.

We also provide announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs, on our investor relations website (https://investor.uber.com/).

About Uber

Our mission is to ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.

We revolutionized personal mobility with Ridesharing, and we are leveraging our platform to redefine the massive meal delivery and logistics industries.

We are a technology platform that uses a global network, leading technology, operational excellence and product expertise to power movement from point A to point B. We develop and operate proprietary technology applications supporting a variety of offerings on our platform. We connect consumers with independent providers of ride services, restaurants and food delivery services, public transportation networks, e-bikes, e-scooters and other personal mobility options. We use this same network, technology, operational excellence and product expertise to connect shippers with carriers in the freight industry. We are also developing technologies that provide autonomous driving vehicle solutions to consumers, networks of vertical take-off and landing vehicles and new solutions to solve everyday problems.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “hope,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” or “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors relate to, among others: competition, managing our growth and corporate culture, financial performance, investments in new products or offerings, our ability to attract drivers, consumers and other partners to our platform, our brand and reputation and other legal and regulatory developments. In addition, other potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include, among others, those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, on May 13, 2019 and in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2019. All information provided in this release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this press release, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. We undertake no duty to update this information unless required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our financial information, which is prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”), we use the following non-GAAP financial measures: Adjusted Net Revenue; Rides Adjusted Net Revenue; Eats Adjusted Net Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA as well as revenue and Adjusted Net Revenue growth in constant currency. The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our recurring core business operating results.

We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when planning, forecasting, and analyzing future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management’s internal comparisons to our historical performance. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors both because (1) they allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and (2) they are used by our institutional investors and the analyst community to help them analyze the health of our business.

There are a number of limitations related to the use of non-GAAP financial measures. In light of these limitations, we provide specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from these non-GAAP financial measures and evaluating these non-GAAP financial measures together with their relevant financial measures in accordance with GAAP.

For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the sections titled “Key Terms for Our Key Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Measures,” “Definitions of Non-GAAP Measures” and “Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures” included at the end of this release.

Contacts

Investors and analysts:

investor@uber.com

Media:

press@uber.com

Read full story here