Skip to main content

Uber ‘running at a loss’

Leaked financial reports appear to indicate that car-share firm Uber is operating at a loss. According to internal financial documents obtained by the Gawker website (link http://gawker.com/here-are-the-internal-documents-that-prove-uber-is-a-mo-1704234157), Uber has lost tens of millions of dollars since 2012, and the documents suggest that CEO Travis Kalanick’s boasts about the company’s exponential revenue growth may be overblown. Gawker published images of the leaked documents online; an unaudited re
August 7, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Leaked financial reports appear to indicate that car-share firm Uber is operating at a loss. According to internal financial documents obtained by the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Gawker website Visit gawker.com website false http://gawker.com/here-are-the-internal-documents-that-prove-uber-is-a-mo-1704234157 false false%>, Uber has lost tens of millions of dollars since 2012, and the documents suggest that CEO Travis Kalanick’s boasts about the company’s exponential revenue growth may be overblown.

Gawker published images of the leaked documents online; an unaudited revenue and expense breakdown for 2013 and 2014 showed that, though Uber’s net revenue has grown substantially, the company lost more than US$56 million in 2013. By the first half of 2014 alone, that had grown to more than US$160 million.

On a positive note, the documents also show that the company increased its cash holdings from US$263m in 2013 to over US$1bn the following year.

Uber is growing rapidly, despite many legal and public relations problems, bans in many countries, as well as competition from companies such as Lyft. In December 2014 it was reported to be worth US$40 billion.

In a statement to Business Insider, the company said, “Shock, horror, Uber makes a loss. This is hardly news and old news at that. It’s the case of business 101: you raise money, you invest money, you grow (hopefully), you make a profit and that generates a return for investors.”

Related Content

  • European Transport Conference
    July 3, 2015
    The 43rd European Transport Conference, organised by the Association for European Transport, takes place at Campus Westend, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany on 28 - 30 September 2015. The conference brings together people working in research, industry, and public policy to network, exchange knowledge, and inspire new ideas. First-class speakers from across the transport industry will talk on themes including: planning for the future, equity in transport, cycling, climate change, and emissions. Th
  • Masabi: bespoke tech is holding transit agencies back
    September 30, 2019
    Sixty per cent of transit agencies looking to use account-based ticketing are struggling with bespoke technology which is slow to deploy and costly to maintain, claims Masabi. Masabi CEO Brian Zanghi says agencies have been “denied access” to systems that keep pace with technology in a cost-effective way and have had to invest in bespoke automatic fare collection (AFC) systems. “This has led to limited innovation with some agencies able to purchase the latest systems but leaving many underserved and left
  • Webinar: Hybrid and pure electric car technology 2014-2024
    June 5, 2014
    A free webinar by Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx on Tuesday 10 June will share some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report, Hybrid and Pure Electric Cars 2014-2024. It encompasses hybrid and pure electric on-road cars, golf cars, neighbourhood electric vehicles NEV and the car-like micro EVs and quadricycles. On-road hybrid cars are a success in developed countries and micro EVs are a success in developing countries. Pure electric on-road cars will become successful within the coming decade.
  • Ride sharing services increase traffic, says Schaller Consulting
    August 1, 2018
    Ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, also called transportation network companies (TNC), are increasing congestion in US cities, says Schaller Consulting. The transport consultancy’s latest report reveals TNCs add 2.6 new vehicle miles on the road for each mile of personal driving removed, increasing driving on city streets by 160%. Called The New Automobility: Lyft, Uber and the Future of American Cities, the document combines research and data from a national travel survey to create a detailed