Lyft Says ‘Continuous Innovation’ of App Earns Record Annual Ridership

Lyft says differentiated offerings on its app helped drive its annual ridership to the highest level in the company’s history.

For full-year 2023, the rideshare platform had more than 40 million active riders, defined as riders who took at least one ride during that period, Lyft said in a Tuesday (Feb. 13) earnings release.

In the fourth quarter, Lyft had 22.4 million active riders who took a ride during that three-month span, the release said. That total was up 10% year over year.

“Continuous innovation gives riders and drivers differentiated reasons to choose Lyft and increases their preference for using Lyft over our competitors,” David Risher, CEO of Lyft, said Tuesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

One different differentiated offering is  the Lyft app’s opt-in feature that prioritizes matching women and non-binary drivers and riders, Risher said. Since its rollout began in September, two-thirds of eligible drivers and millions of riders have been using the feature.

Now, as of Tuesday, the feature is available in every market across the United States, Risher said.

“I’ll also point out that we’re the only rideshare company that offers this feature in the U.S.,” Risher said. “So, if you’re a woman or you have a woman in your life, she prefers to ride or drive with another woman, download the Lyft app — we’re the only game in town.”

In November, Lyft added an on-time pickup promise for scheduled rides to the airport in major markets. With this offering, if a driver does not pick up the rider within 10 minutes of the scheduled pickup time, the customer is compensated with up to $100 in Lyft credits, according to the press release.

This offering helped drive Lyft’s scheduled airport drop-offs to an all-time high in the fourth quarter, per the release. Plus, half the riders who were compensated took another Lyft ride in the next 30 days, Risher said during the call.

“Of the more than half a million rides that have fallen directly under this guarantee, we have had to cover just 2% at a cost of less than 0.01% of gross bookings,” Risher said. “Helped by this guarantee, scheduled rides to the airport grew 37% year on year.”