The novel coronavirus, which has brought many ride-hailing companies to a halt, Uber’s first-quarter earnings on Thursday, highlighted the financial troubles the firm experienced from the coronavirus pandemic, showing significant losses.
Uber said its revenue rose 14 percent from $3.54 billion a year ago, marginally above the $3.51 billion average analyst estimate. Nevertheless, in the first quarter, the company reported a net loss of $2.9 billion, which was greater than analysts predicted. Uber has not recorded a loss higher than this for the last three years.
Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in a statement:
“While our rides business has been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, we have taken quick action to preserve the strength of our balance sheet, focus additional resources on Uber Eats, and prepare us for any recovery scenario,”
“Our global footprint and highly variable cost structure remain an important advantage, as our expectation is that the rides recovery will vary by city and country.”
As the CEO suggested, Uber has seen the pandemic significantly affect its core ride-hailing business, even as the company has tried to expand other offerings. The company has laid-off workers in the last few months in an attempt to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, as well as closing down offices and seeing its stock price drop 68 percent from $41 in mid-February to $13 in mid-March.
Uber is not the only company being affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the worldwide economy coming to a halt.
Uber said it laid off 14 percent of its full-time workers on Tuesday, around 3,700 people. Uber said this decision was due to the economic difficulties and uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and in an attempt at cutting operating costs.
The Panthera Post 