Ride-hailing and delivery specialist Uber is“hugely optimistic” in its Uber for Business corporate platform and “has continued to invest” in its sales team.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the comments during a conference call, after the technology firm saw gross bookings reach an “all-time high” of $29.1 billion in the second quarter, which was a 33 per increase on the same quarter in 2021.
Second quarter gross bookings for Uber for Business (U4B) rose to $1.3 billion, which was a 41 per cent increase year-on-year, according to the company.
Managed Uber for Business, which is the “actively managed portion” of U4B through its account managers and sales team, also saw its share of bookings rise from 25 per cent in Q2 of 2021 to 29 per cent this year.
“We’re really selling to significant enterprise customers out there, both in the tech space and the non-tech space,” said Khosrowshahi.
“A lot of these enterprises, some of them are going back to returning to the office, some of them are not. But they are getting on growth. The champion use-case that we’re seeing with U4B is essentially the business traveller getting out on the road again.”
The company also is “actively upselling” its Eats product into Uber for Business. “We’re seeing some customers, for example, buy our vouchers product,” added Khosrowshahi.
The mobility (ride-hailing) and delivery segments were nearly evenly split: mobility bookings at $13.4 billion were up 55 per cent on Q2 2021 or by 57 per cent on a constant-currency basis.
Airport gross bookings represented 15 per cent of total mobility bookings, which was the same percentage as in 2019. Airport sales increased by 139 per cent on 2021 “outpacing the overall mobility segment’s recovery as consumer travel trends improved”.
The company’s total second quarter revenue grew 105 per cent to $8.1 billion and Uber’s net loss was $2.6 billion. Mobility accounted for $3.55 billion of revenue, while delivery revenue was $2.69 billion.
“Revenue growth significantly outpaced gross bookings growth due to a change in the business model for our UK mobility business,” added Uber in a statement.
Uber’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region saw revenue nearly double year-on-year to $1.85 billion for the quarter. It ranked only below the US and Canada region, which reported a 149 per cent rise in revenue to $4.94 billion.
Earlier this year, Uber finally secured a 30-month licence to continue operating in London after a long-running battle with Transport for London (TfL), which had previously revoked its licence.