Uber, a company that uses rich people’s money to subsidize artificially cheap taxi rides provided by underpaid drivers, continued its streak of having never made a profit by losing another $5.2 billion in the second quarter of 2019.
Yeah, you heard me: Five. Point. Two. Billion. Dollars.
Now, to be fair to the publicly-traded company that has never made a profit, $3.9 billion of that $5.2 billion loss was attributed by the company to payouts related to its IPO, a one-time cost, according to its latest quarterly filing.
But you math whizzes out there will note that leaves approximately $1.3 billion in regular ol’ we-just-lost-a-buncha-money losses, up from $1 billion last quarter and $878 million a year ago.
“Our platform strategy continues to deliver strong results, with Trips up 35 percent and Gross Bookings up 37 percent in constant currency, compared to the second quarter of last year,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, in the accompanying press release. “In July, the Uber platform reached over 100 million Monthly Active Platform Consumers for the first time, as we become a more and more integral part of everyday life in cities around the world.”
As of this writing, Uber has lost $16.2 billion since 2016.
Some analysis from the New York Times:
The results continued to cast a shadow over Uber, whose growth once rose like a rocket ship as it upended traditional transportation and barreled into markets around the world. The company’s I.P.O., which was expected to value it at about $120 billion, was hurt when Uber dropped below its $45 offering price on its first day of trading and has only briefly risen above that share price since. Mr. Khosrowshahi has been criticized for the way Uber went public and has faced questions about how he intends to revive growth.
“What we’re looking for is evidence that the company can reaccelerate revenue growth after the last few quarters,” said Tom White, a senior vice president at the financial firm D.A. Davidson.
Yeah, you know, it’d sure be cool if some of these startups could make money. Eventually.