Uber records $1 billion loss in Q1 2019 despite revenue growth

Uber has posted dramatic revenue growth in the first quarter though it’s continuing to bleed money.

Uber has recently posted its first earnings report as a publicly traded company. In the report, Uber says that its revenue has climbed to $3.1 billion in the first quarter of 2019, which is 20% increase from the same time last year, beating expectations of financial analysts. But the ride-hailing tech company has posted $1 billion in losses as well as the firm fights to maintain its share of the market.

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Meanwhile, Nelson Chai, Uber’s chief financial officer (CFO) believes that the earnings have met the expectations of Wall Street. He said that Uber shares rose by 2.9 percent to reach $40.97 in after-market trades that followed the release of the earnings figures. As he stated;

“Our investments remain focused on global platform expansion and long-term product and technology differentiation, but we will not hesitate to invest to defend our market position globally.”

Uber CFO further notes that Uber witnessed less aggressive pricing by its competitors, and that trend has continued into the second quarter. Meanwhile, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claims that customer engagement across their platform was higher than ever, as he stated;

“In the first quarter, engagement across our platform was higher than ever, with an average of 17 million trips per day and an annualized gross bookings run-rate of US$59 billion. We are now focused on executing our strategy to become a one-stop shop for local transportation and commerce.”

Khosrowshahi believes that after becoming a public company earlier this month, we are now focused to expand our services to all important markets. Meanwhile, Uber’s shares have been trading below its IPO price ever since it became a public company. In its first day of trading, the firm’s market value took a massive stroke of $617 million, the largest loss that any US company faced on the first day of its trading in recent history.