Uber reports Q4 revenue of $4.1B, up 37% YoY, gross bookings of $18.1B, up 28%, and net loss of $1.1B; gross bookings from Uber Eats were $4.37B, up 71% YoY
Revenue of $4.1 billion, growing 37% year-over-year or 39% on a constant currency basis — Rides Adjusted EBITDA of $742 million, with continued margin expansion
Uber
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes out a year of quarterly reports that read as one long argument about whether Uber can shrink its losses while it grows. The Q1 2019 print showed a $1.01B net loss on 20% revenue growth, and the Q3 report drew a 7%+ stock drop on a $1.2B loss despite accelerating Eats revenue.
Q4 answers with the first hard evidence of the profitability case: Rides Adjusted EBITDA of $742M with continued margin expansion, a narrowed $1.1B net loss, and Uber Eats gross bookings up 71% to $4.37B — making delivery, not rides, the fastest-scaling part of the business.
First-order effects
Uber's rides business is now self-funding at the adjusted-EBITDA level ($742M), shifting investor scrutiny from 'when does rides break even' to how fast the consolidated $1.1B loss can close.
Uber Eats' 71% gross-bookings growth makes delivery the company's primary growth engine, changing what management optimizes for in capital allocation.
Second-order effects
With rides margins expanding and Eats scaling fastest, Uber's cost discipline and driver/courier incentive spend tilt toward delivery, pressuring food-delivery rivals to match unit economics rather than just growth.
The narrowing-loss trajectory (from $1.2B in Q3 to $1.1B here) gives Uber a credible path-to-profitability narrative to defend its valuation against the skepticism that followed the Q3 selloff.
The broader shift is marketplace businesses being judged on segment-level contribution economics rather than top-line growth alone, resetting how investors price growth-stage platforms.
The trend: Ride-hailing platforms are converting scale into segment-level profitability, with delivery emerging as the growth engine that funds the path to consolidated profit.
“Uber lost $8.5 billion in 2019.. it thinks it can finally eke out a profit on an adjusted based at the end of 2020”, “adjusted” for expenses they'd rather not count. That's how I adjust myself into being a billionaire too! (justing for missing billion). https://www.theverge.com/…
ICYMI - Uber said it doesn't expect self-driving to really figure in its business outside R&D for the next couple years. When it raised $1B in capital for its ATG group, that “prefunded” 18 months of development, execs said on today's call. via @cnbctech https://www.cnbc.com/...
They lost this much money without the cost of actually paying their drivers a reasonable wage. They do not have a viable business. https://twitter.com/...
How, after more than 10 years in business do you still manage to lose money on $4bn of revenues without questioning whether it's ever gonna work? https://twitter.com/...
i too would like to become wealthy and powerful beyond my wildest dreams by losing billions of investor dollars year after year https://twitter.com/...
.@Uber stock is up 8% as Dara Khosrowshahi announces more financial discipline ahead. He even pushed back the profitability (based on EBITDA) timeline to Q4 2020 from Q1 2021. $UBER https://twitter.com/...
Is #Uber closer to profitability? Better quarter than anticipated with a SMALLER LOSS of $1.1bln in the quarter & making more money on rides. CEO @DaraKhosrowshahi says the ERA of growth at all COSTS is OVER! $uber #Ridehailing $lyft #stockmarket #foxbusiness https://twitter.com/…
Headed in the right direction. Rides business growth looking solid. As more food delivery services go public, that market segment will also normalize to growth-not-at-all-costs. https://twitter.com/...
Uber posts a $1.1B loss, making it $8.5B on the year (largely due to IPO payouts). Stock appears to be up on a narrower than expected quarterly loss https://investor.uber.com/...
when companies say stuff like this now, after years of telling us they can become profitable whenever they want, or they'll make it up on volume, are we supposed to believe them?! https://twitter.com/...