Uber Makes Roughly $2 Billion A Month

Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick revealed at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit that the company has 40 million monthly active riders and that the average amount riders spend per month is around $50. That gives the ride sharing startup company revenue of roughly $2 billion a month.

According to a report covering the event, Kalanick said drivers made between $1.5 billion and $2 billion last month. Combine that with the average amount users spend each month and its clear Uber is doing a brisk business with its taxi hailing service.

  Going into the future, the success of Uber will hinge on its ability to launch an autonomous car program, which it is facing a lot of competition to do. “Really, when you start to automate, you start to do the self-driving thing on our roads, the roads in many ways are the cardiovascular system for our city, you make it a much more efficient cardiovascular system,” Kalanick said, according to the report. “These cars, when they go into self-driving, you’re now starting to become a robotics company. We’re at the very beginning stages of becoming a robotics company.” Kalanick went on to note that Uber has started researching and testing autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, saying that part of the challenge the company is facing is a shorter time scale to stay in lock step with competitors. “Things are happening so fast that you need science to be part of that overall product effort that’s happening today,” he said.

As for China, which is a growth market for Uber, the executive said Uber had to rethink everything because of the Chinese government. “I think the better way to think about it is that, in China, the government is involved in business in many different ways,” Kalanick said. “When you go to China, you have to rethink how you do everything, you have to start from scratch. If you go into China thinking you know how to do something best, you are gonna get your ass handed to you.”