Uber is still losing a lot of money

• Uber reported second quarter gross bookings of $21.9 billion, more than double the same period in 2020.
• Even so, the company posted an adjusted earnings loss of $509 million and a cash burn of $1.28 billion.
• The company’s CFO said bookings should rise, but losses likely will continue for another quarter.

Uber’s doubled its bookings over the same quarter last year — which was the worst quarter of the pandemic — but still posted an adjusted earnings loss of $509 million, the ride-hailing company’s latest earnings show.

Gross bookings across the brand’s mobility, delivery, and freight segments reached a total $21.9 billion in the second quarter, using up more than $1.28 billion in cash.

“In Q2 we invested in recovery by investing in drivers and we made strong progress, with monthly active drivers and couriers in the US increasing by nearly 420,000 from February to July,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

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“Our platform is getting stronger each quarter, with consumers who engage with both Mobility and Delivery now generating nearly half of our total company Gross Bookings,” he added.

Khosrowshahi also highlighted the addition of more than 420,000 monthly active drivers and couriers to the network from February to July, and the company said that driver earnings growth outpaced revenues by 30 percentage points.

CFO Nelson Chai said in the release that the losses are expected to continue into another quarter, hopefully shrinking to $100 million on gross bookings of between $22 and $24 billion.

In a sign of the wider recovery from the pandemic, Uber reported seven times more airport trips this year over last year.