According to Uber’s fourth-quarter earnings released on Thursday, the company lost $1.1 billion for the three-month period but expects to be profitable by the end of 2020. Overall, the ridesharing company lost $8.5 billion in 2019.
The Verge reports that the ride-sharing app Uber released its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday posting a net loss of $1.1 billion. This was a smaller loss than the previous quarter in which it lost $1.2 billion, and a much lower loss than the second quarter when the company was down a whopping $5.2 billion within three months. Uber says that overall it lost $8.5 billion in 2019 showing just how long the company’s road to profitability may be.
Uber claims that $243 million of the Q4 loss of $1.1 billion was due to stock-based compensation. The firm generated $4.1 billion in revenue over a three-month period ending in December. The firm’s gross bookings and total customer payments to Uber before payments to drivers grew to $18.1 billion, a 28 percent year-over-year increase.
The ride-sharing firm has been under pressure from investors to deal with its enormous losses and demonstrate exactly how the firm can turn a profit. Uber and Lyft both went public this year and have set records for the highest amount of money lost in the lead up to their IPOs. Both firms have continued to lose money since going public leading to questions surrounding the long-term sustainability of app-based ride-sharing firms.
The firm has also been subject to pressure from regulators and is struggling to comply with a new gig work law in California that makes it harder for the firm to classify drivers as independent contractors instead of regular employees. The firm also lost its license to operate in London following a “pattern of failures” identified by regulators.
Uber has previously projected that 2021 would be its first profitable year but in a recent call with investors, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that he was challenging employees at the firm to push the timeline for profitability up to the final quarter of 2020.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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