As Uber continues its quest for global domination of the ride-hailing market, the company is piling up sizable losses, including approximately $1.27 billion so far this year, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Even though Uber is not a public company, it has quarterly calls with shareholders to discuss its financial situation. On a call last week Uber’s head of finance Gautam Gupta reportedly revealed Uber’s global losses grew to $750 million in the second quarter, including a deficit of more than $100 million in the U.S. The first quarter saw losses of approximately $520 million.
Bloomberg reports that Uber has lost at least $4 billion in its four-year history, including $2 billion last year. Uber is conducting a costly price war with competitors like Lyft, and subsidies to drivers to make up for lost earnings from reduced fares accounted for the majority of the company’s global losses, Bloomberg reported.
Large tech companies have been known to take big losses as they grow. For years, Amazon took losses as it scaled its business to become the ubiquitous giant it is today. But that has changed in recent years, with Amazon frequently exceeding Wall Street expectations and reporting big profits.
Bloomberg notes that Amazon’s biggest annual loss was $1.4 billion in 2000, a figure Uber surpassed last year and is on pace to exceed again in 2016.
But the losses don’t tell the entire story. Bookings increased drastically between the first and second quarters, from $3.8 billion to more than $5 billion. In that same period GAAP net revenue rose from $960 million to approximately $1.1 billion.
In addition, Uber claims it has captured 84 to 87 percent of marketshare in the U.S. Uber is valued at $69 billion, according to Bloomberg, and it has raised more than $16 billion in cash and debt.
Uber recently washed its hands of one big drag on its balance sheet. Last month, Uber merged its China business with Didi Chuxing, the country’s top ride-hailing company, after a fierce battle. As a result of backing off in China, Uber gets a 17 percent stake in the newly-combined company and a $1 billion investment from Didi. Uber has lost more than $2 billion on its China business in two years.
Uber’s chief competitor Lyft is also reportedly taking significant losses, with executives aiming to cap them at around $50 million a month in the U.S. Lyft is spending big to catch up with Uber, but it remains behind in terms of number of rides. Uber completed 62 million trips in July to Lyft’s 13.9 million, according to Bloomberg.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Uber’s first quarter losses were approximately $520 million.
