A year after Dara Khosrowshahi took the reins at Uber following the resignation of controversial founder Travis Kalanick, the company is still facing massive, six-figure losses. Only now it’s also grappling with slower revenue growth.
Investors can tolerate losses in a company enjoying accelerating growth. Or even slower revenue growth in a company with strong profits. But even while 2018 has proven to be a much more tranquil year than Uber’s scandal-filled 2017, it’s still finding itself on the wrong side of those equations.
Several news outlets, including CNBC and Axios, reported that Uber posted a GAAP net loss of $891 million in the second quarter of 2018. That compared to a $2.5 billion net profit in the first quarter (which included proceeds from the sale of assets in Russia and Southeast Asia) and a $1.1 billion loss in the quarter before that.
Revenue, meanwhile, rose 49% year over year to $2.7 billion. That’s down from the 67% growth rate in the first quarter.
The key reason for the slower growth may be a slowdown in Uber’s core ride-hailing business. Gross bookings rose 38% year-over-year in the second quarter to $12 billion. In the first quarter, gross bookings rose at a 55% annual rate.
Uber has been seeing growth in new areas such as UberEats and bike and scooter rentals, but it still faces heavy spending on creating a fleet of autonomous cars.
Uber is expected to take its company public as early as late 2018.