2017 wasn’t exactly an easy year for Uber, from scandals to lawsuits and even a change in CEO. Regardless of its challenges, the ride-hailing firm still managed to grow and power through the year. Uber had managed to get a $7.5 billion in sales but overall still posted a $4.5 billion loss.
That is a massive amount of loss, still not as much as certain scandal clad companies or country but with the recent SoftBank investment for a tune of $9.3 billion, it seems that these losses aren’t exactly a deterrent as investors believe that the whole concept of ride-hailing will reach a point where the business can sustain itself and make a profit.
In a report by Bloomberg, losses were accounted to accounting principle, write-downs as well as legal expenses against the suit by Waymo which only just a few days ago we reported that Uber settled with Waymo for $245 million. The settlement wasn’t in cash form but in stock form.
Overall, Uber ended 2017 with a healthy cash balance of $6 billion in the bank, 13% less compared to 2016. On a side note, UberEats has also made substantial revenue and Uber expects that part of the business to account for 10% of Uber’s overall business. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says he isn’t worried about the losses when speaking at Goldman Sachs Technology forum in San Francisco because he knows Uber can be profitable if they wanted to be. The focus now is mostly on developing the market which requires a lot of capital outlay. It makes a lot of sense because even with such huge losses, the tech ride-hailing firm is still able to draw in large investors.
Dara Khosrowshahi’s vision is that when ride-hailing becomes more prominent, people will buy fewer cars and that traffic will get better eventually.
