For all the turbulence that Uber has experienced in the past year—allegations of sexism, an executive exodus, a lawsuit that could throw a wrench in the company’s plans to develop self-driving cars—one thing has remained constant: Uber, the world’s most valuable tech company at $68 billion, is still losing a startling amount of money. In an attempt to showcase how much its revenues have grown, the embattled ride-hailing company opened its books to Bloomberg in an interview published Friday, revealing explosive sales growth over the past four years. In 2016, Uber customers spent $20 billion—more than doubling how much they spent the year before. Of that $20 billion, Uber says $6.5 billion is net revenue, excluding its costs in China.
Of course, in its attempt to rapidly scale its global business, Uber is also burning through cash at an incredible rate, with losses of about $2.8 billion in the last year. If you take into account Uber’s operations in China, which it sold to local rival Didi Kuaidi last year, its losses likely top $3 billion. (Uber C.E.O. Travis Kalanick had said previously that his company was losing $1 billion every year in China alone). This would seem to substantiate multiple reports last year claiming that Uber’s losses were mounting and could exceed $3 billion.
Uber is obviously excited to share details about its growth, despite its gargantuan losses. In the last quarter of 2016, shortly before the #DeleteUber campaign prompted some 200,000 people to delete their accounts, gross bookings increased 28 percent over the previous three months, and revenue increased 74 percent—vastly outpacing losses, which grew 5 percent during the same period. “We’re fortunate to have a healthy and growing business, giving us the room to make the changes we know are needed on management and accountability, our culture and organization, and our relationship with drivers,” Rachel Holt, who runs Uber’s North American operations, told Bloomberg in a statement.
Still, there’s something fishy about Uber’s balance sheet and some of the accounting behind the numbers the company selectively chose to share. Uber’s revenue, for instance, is “only the portion Uber takes from fares, except in the case of its carpooling service; the company counts the entire amount of an UberPool fare as revenue,” according to Bloomberg’s Eric Newcomer. Uber’s losses, he says, also don’t “account for employee stock compensation, certain real-estate investments, automobile purchases and other expenses.” The discrepancy with its carpooling service may be related to differences between how Uber chooses to classify UberX and UberPool, as Business Insider’s Biz Carson notes, but the company did not say.
Silicon Valley remains bullish. Investors have poured $8 billion in funding into Uber in hopes that it will be the next Amazon, eventually turning a profit from its massive, globe-spanning business. And while some investors have spoken out about Uber’s allegedly sexist, discriminatory corporate culture, none are yet complaining about the company’s finances. Stakeholders presumably know they’re in for the long haul. Still, it seems Kalanick realized it was a good time to open his books. Like other private companies, Uber isn’t required to report its finances; choosing to do so right now, at a moment when the company is under intense scrutiny, may be a way to boost morale for employees and investors alike.
