Uber lost $6.8 billion in 2020
Uber lost a staggering $6.8 billion last year — and that’s actually good news.
The full-year loss, which Uber reported along with its fourth quarter results on Wednesday, represented a significant drop from the $8.5 billion it lost in 2019. During the year, Uber sold off costly ventures, cut staff and focused on what its CEO previously called “profitable growth.”
The company reported $968 million in losses for the last three months of 2020, including $236 million in stock-based compensation expenses, down from nearly $1.1 billion in the year prior. CFO Nelson Chai said in a statement that Uber remains “well on track to achieving our profitability goals in 2021.”
Uber has said it aims to achieve profitability on an adjusted basis before the end of this year. Like Lyft, which reported its fourth quarter results on Tuesday, Uber saw some improvement from the third quarter of last year but still experienced revenue declines due to the ongoing pandemic’s impact on its Rides business. Uber posted revenue of $3.2 billion for the fourth quarter, down 16% from the same period a year earlier.
Uber has continued to lean on Eats, its food delivery business, which saw revenue increase 224% to $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter compared to the year prior. Rides revenue was $1.5 billion, down 52% from a year earlier.
The company has worked to beef up its delivery portfolio in recent months. In July, Uber acquired one of its smaller food delivery competitors, Postmates, for $2.65 billion in an all-stock deal. Last week, the company announced it is acquiring alcohol delivery startup Drizly.
The acquisition spree comes as Uber has abandoned its loftier — and costly — ambitions. The company sold off its autonomous vehicle research division and its flying taxi operations in December.
Uber, which has a history of steep losses, has felt the effects of the pandemic. It cut roughly 25% of its staff over multiple rounds of layoffs in the first half of last year as the global health crisis put pressure on its core business.
