Uber says it is the larger player in India; reports first annual net profit since IPO
The ride-hailing giant said its strong results were driven by higher demand during the holiday season, as well as user retention.
In its post-earnings conference call with analysts, Inc said India is a strong geography for the company, especially on the bike taxi side, and that it's the "larger player" in the country.
"India for us is super strong and we are gaining category position versus our big competitor there. And we think we're the larger player," the company's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said.
"Making a lot of progress with two-wheelers," he added, referring to Uber's bike taxi service—a business came under the government scanner last year for deploying personal vehicles instead of commercial, ultimately leading to it being banned in Delhi.
, Uber's bigger rival in India, recently announced the launch of an electric bike taxi fleet to help it capture a bigger piece of the bike taxi pie. The rides offered on these electric bike taxis will be cheaper than those offered on normal petrol-run scooters, which Ola hopes will help people switch to its service.
In its fourth-quarter earnings, Uber reported a significant uptick in net profit, nearly tripling to $1.43 billion. The surge was primarily driven by a substantial pre-tax benefit resulting from the re-evaluation of the company's equity investments.
Its strong showing in the quarter was further boosted by its outlook which beat Wall Street estimates. Uber said it expects adjusted EBITDA of $1.26 billion to $1.34 billion in Jan-March quarter, the upper end of which is higher than analysts estimates of $1.26 billion, according to LSEG data.
Strong demand during the holiday seasons, as well as repeat users primarily drove the company's fourth-quarter earnings, it said. Gross bookings rose 22% in the quarter and exceeded analysts' expectations.
The strong cap off to the financial year was also underscored by Uber's expansion into bike taxis, food delivery services, pooled rides, partnerships with local taxi services, across geographies, as well as an increase in uptake for its premium products such as Business Comfort and Uber Black by corporates.
Uber's fourth-quarter revenue rose 15% to $9.9 billion. Its shares were marginally higher at 0.26% in premarket trading on Thursday, Indian Standard Time.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti