Uber earnings: bookings grow 20% again, but ride revenue slips and drivers run short

If you booked an Uber in parts of Brazil or India in recent months, you may have waited longer than usual. Uber says there were not enough drivers. That frustration sits inside otherwise strong results.

Uber earnings for July to September, published on 4 November, showed bookings up 20% and a record profit margin. Yet revenue from rides, the business Uber started with, fell 2%. The quarter tells two stories: a platform that keeps growing, and a ride business running short of drivers.

A fifth quarter of 20% growth in a row

Gross bookings, the total value of every ride, order and freight load on the app, reached US$59.8 billion, up 20% from a year earlier. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi called it Uber’s “fifth consecutive quarter of 20%+ Gross Bookings growth”.

• Rides (Mobility): bookings of US$29.5 billion, up 18%.
• Delivery: US$28.5 billion, up 22%.
• People and trips: 215 million people used Uber at least once a month, up 14%. They took 4.1 billion trips, up 16%.
• Revenue: US$14.8 billion, up 10%. Uber says “business model changes”, which it does not spell out in the release, cut that growth by 8 percentage points.
• Profit: adjusted operating profit rose 38% to US$2.3 billion, a record 3.9% of bookings. Adjusted earnings per share were US$0.88, against the US$0.86 analysts polled by Investing.com expected.

For October to December, Uber expects bookings of US$63.25 billion to US$65.25 billion, growth of 18% to 22%. Its earnings range sits slightly below what analysts expected, Investing.com noted. Uber’s shares were trading higher on Wednesday afternoon, though one day says little about Uber stock over time.

Why the headline profit fell 92%

Net income, the official bottom line, dropped to US$512 million from US$6.6 billion a year ago. That looks alarming, but it is mostly accounting, not a weaker business. A year ago Uber booked a one-off tax benefit of US$4.9 billion and a US$1.5 billion gain on shares it holds in other companies. This quarter those holdings lost US$476 million in value before tax.

Short of drivers, from Brazil to India

The harder question is rides. On the call with analysts, Uber said driver shortages in international markets, Brazil and India among them, held back ride bookings, according to summaries by BigGo Finance and Benzinga. High fuel prices, linked to the conflict in the Middle East, made driving less attractive in markets where every rupee or real counts. Khosrowshahi told CNBC that Uber is “investing significantly” to add drivers.

Uber has not said how much of the 2% fall in ride revenue comes from its “business model changes” and how much is real weakness. Investors will keep asking.

What Uber’s earnings mean if you ride, drive or order

If you ride in a city where drivers are scarce, expect longer waits and, at busy times, higher prices until supply recovers.

If you drive, “investing significantly” usually means bonuses and incentives. In practice, such offers often shrink once drivers return, so track your hourly earnings after fuel, not just the headline offer.

If you mostly order food or groceries, delivery is growing faster than rides, and competition is sharpening. DoorDash’s plan to buy Instacart for about US$17 billion shows how hard rivals are pushing for the same weekly basket.

A 700-car robotaxi bet as Waymo plans its own path

Uber now expects about 700 fully driverless cars on its app by the end of 2026 and more than 2,000 in 2027. Uber wants to be the app where many robotaxi makers sell rides.

That plan has a crack in it. Waymo, Uber’s best-known robotaxi partner, has confirmed it will start splitting from Uber in January 2028 and run its own app in Austin and Atlanta, according to TechCrunch and Automotive World. Its cars already on Uber stay there until at least May 2028, when the contract ends. Waymo is also planning its first robotaxi service in Canada, and Tesla has been carrying Robotaxi riders in Austin since September.

Strong numbers, but the next test is people

On balance, these Uber earnings show a solid quarter. Growth held at 20%, margins rose, and Uber has US$10.1 billion in cash and short-term investments to spend on drivers and robotaxis.

But the soft spot is real. Rides need drivers who find the work worth their time and fuel. Even 2,000 driverless cars are a small number for a platform that handled 4.1 billion trips in one quarter, and its best-known partner is preparing to go its own way. The likelier outcome is that Uber keeps growing through delivery while it spends to steady rides, a sensible path if the spending is disciplined.

Watch two things in the next report: whether ride revenue returns to growth, and how many of those 700 driverless cars are actually carrying passengers.