Uber's $30 Billion Quarter Shows the Travel Recovery Is Well Underway

Taxi tech company Uber has just recorded its busiest quarter, with gross bookings reaching an all-time high of $29.1 billion in the three months to June 30, 2022. That number’s up 33 percent on the same period last year.

However, losses prevail. Uber posted a net loss of $2.6 billion, with a $1.7 billion net headwind relating to its equity investments, mostly tied to the revaluation of its Aurora, Grab and Zomato stakes. The net loss also includes $470 million in stock-based compensation expense.

For its first quarter it reported a net loss of $5.9 billion, so the momentum is there, particularly from its business travel division.

Overall, trips during the quarter grew 24 percent year-on-year to 1.87 billion, or 21 million trips per day. Revenue grew 105 percent to $8.1 billion, compared to the 2021 first quarter. There was a slower pace of growth for its food delivery unit though, where gross bookings grew 7 percent year-on-year to $13.9 billion.

That may be because fewer employees are ordering takeaways, and instead jumping in an Uber to get to the office. Uber for Business revenue almost doubled in the quarter, growing 105 percent year-on-year to $8.1 billion.

Managed Uber for Business, its “actively managed” portion of the business through Uber’s account managers and sales team, represented 29 percent of Uber for Business’s gross bookings, compared to 25 percent in the second quarter of 2021.

“We're really selling to significant enterprise customers out there, both in the tech space and the non-tech space,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an earnings call on Tuesday.

“A lot of these enterprises, some of them are going back to returning to office, some of them are not … the champion use case that we're seeing with U4B is essentially the business traveler getting out on the road again. And obviously, a sales call over Zoom is one thing, but if the salesperson comes in to see you in person, it gives a different impression and we're seeing our U4B clients invest in getting their teams on the road.”

Airport traffic was also recovering, growing 139 percent year-on-year, and 49 percent on the first quarter.

The results came out just a day before it launched Uber Travel in the UK, which includes a tie-up with Omio.

In June, Uber for Business said it was taking steps to make it easier for travel managers to nudge their organizations into more sustainable modes of transport, including price-matching Uber Green trips against UberX.