Uber during the past few weeks has seen a rebound in ride bookings, particularly in markets that are loosening lockdown restrictions, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday in an earnings call.
Globally, Uber's April ride business was down about 80 percent year over year, but this week has been the fourth in a row of week-over-week growth, he said. Khosrowshahi said U.S. bookings have hit their bottom, with gross bookings last week up 14 percent in New York, 8 percent in San Francisco, 10 percent in Los Angeles and 11 percent in Chicago compared with the previous week. Some markets globally have seen larger recoveries, including Hong Kong, where bookings have reached 70 percent of the levels they were at before the Covid-19 crisis.
"Our expectation is that the recovery will vary geographically and be nonlinear, meaning some markets recover while others temporarily retreat," Khosrowshahi said. "As the only truly scale global player, we think this represents an advantage, both in terms of revenue coming in as well as operational insights we can apply across markets."
For the first quarter, revenue from rides was up 2 percent year over year to $2.47 billion. Gross bookings were up 20 percent year over year for January and February, but they declined 40 percent year over year in March as the Covid-19 crisis began to take hold throughout the world.
Khosrowshahi said he expected commuting would lead Uber's recovery, which he said "will open up exciting new prospects for Uber for Business, as companies look to move their employees to and from offices."
Uber is working to cut a total of $1 billion in fixed costs, including its announcement earlier this week that it would cut its customer support and recruiting teams by more than 3,700 employees. Careem, Uber's subsidiary in the Middle East, has cut its workforce by 31 percent, he said.
In the meantime, growth in Uber Eats has made up some of the losses from rides. Despite the decline in April bookings, total company bookings for the month were down only 40 percent year over year, thanks largely to growth in the Eats business, Khosrowshahi said.
For the first quarter, Uber reported a net loss of $2.95 billion, compared with a $1.01 billion net loss in the first quarter of 2019. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, Uber had hoped to reach profitability by the end of this year, and Khosrowshahi said the crisis is derailing that plan "by a matter of quarters, not years. Reaching profitability as soon as possible remains a strategic priority for us."
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