Uber Losses Widen In 2017

Uber reported fourth-quarter financial results Wednesday (Feb. 14) which show wider losses compared to the year earlier.

According to a report in CNBC, Uber reported losses of $4.5 billion for all of  2017 which is 61% wider than the $2.8 billion it lost in 2016. The fourth quarter results were first reported by The Information and then confirmed by CNBC.

For the fourth quarter, Uber had losses of $1.1 billion which was less than the $1.46 billion in losses it lodged in the third quarter. Revenue for 2017 jumped 14% to $11.1 billion from $9 billion. The company has $6 billion in cash as of the end of 2017, which is 13% less than where it ended 2016, noted CNBC, citing data from Bloomberg. Because Uber is a private company it is not required to release results but it has been disclosing results more recently, noted the report.

In its third quarter, the ride-hailing app company reported unadjusted net losses of $1.46 billion in the third quarter, according to Reuters reports at the time. The adjusted figure, according to The Financial Times, is $743m during the third quarter of this year, up 14 percent from the previous quarter. Those figures come care of new documents sent to shareholders, according to the FT. Net revenue during Q2 was $2 billion — a 21 percent increase from the Q2 result of $1.66 billion — with gross booking clocking in at $9.7 billion, compared with $8.74 billion in the second quarter.

While Uber has reported losses throughout its run as the world’s most successful and valuable startup, until Q3, those losses were showing signs of decline. That has picked back up in the fourth quarter.  That widening, instead of shrinking, of the loss margin, follows what has objectively been a rough year for Uber — which saw its CEO ousted under a cloud of various scandals and the disclosure of a hack that Uber had taken great pains to hide.  That hack apparently exposed the data of 57 million people. It also faces a newly resurgent Lyft, which has picked up market share in recent months.