Uber Technologies suffered its biggest quarterly loss ever, affected by intense competition in Latin America and other countries, as well as significant IPO expenses.
Uber, which operates passenger and cargo through smartphone apps, lost $5.23 billion in the second quarter of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The company reported losses in the same quarter of last year amounted to $878 million, the newspaper said.
Uber's revenue slumped only 14 percent to $3.17 billion in the second quarter ended June 30, the smallest quarterly increase on record, and below analysts' expectations of $3.3 billion.
Although the results show that Uber continues to expand its business, it continues to struggle with an increasing number of competitors around the world, resulting in new losses related to incentives for drivers.
Analysts and investors continue to expect more losses for the company over the next few years, as competition in the market for leading technology companies intensifies.
Uber, however, expected to begin to cut losses, and provided better-than-expected forecasts for the year, citing a loss of $3 billion rather than $3.2 billion, analysts expect.
"The company's bookings, which include the money you pay drivers, continue to rise at an impressive rate of more than 30 percent," said CEO Dara Khosroushahi.
"We still have new markets. We have Uber Eats (for food delivery) which is experiencing amazing growth rates." However, Khosroushahi believed the company's losses would peak in 2019, with a decline in 2020 and beyond.
Uber's revenue in Latin America, for example, fell 24 percent from a year earlier to $547 million, a blow from a region that was once a strong source of growth for Uber.
But Uber managed to make 1.68 billion trips and delivery services for the second quarter of this year, slightly better than the 1.65 billion trips analysts had expected.
By Alexander James August 11, 2019
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