Uber has continued to lose substantial amounts of money throughout the year. The company generated $2.8 billion in revenue during its second quarter, but it still lost 891$ million due to internal spending.
Uber likely lost funds through efforts to grow its presence globally. Although Uber managed to earn more than it did in last year’s second quarter, it still has lost a substantial amount of money.
Last quarter, Uber generated a rare amount of income, as it sold its businesses in Russia and some Southeast Asian countries to other car-sharing companies.
Uber’s downfall has been a long time coming. The company has lost eleven billion dollars since its creation in 2009. According to some of its spokespeople, the company still has around a $7.3 billion buffer before it perishes. This fact may extend its chances to save its business.
As reported by Bloomberg News, the business has the mentality of “growth over profit.” However, Uber’s idea of “growth” is actually very expensive. Its efforts to create a series of self-driving cars for its business has reportedly caused a loss of over $200 million each year, which is a concerning number. This fact demonstrates that Uber is not thinking of dropping the project anytime soon.
The only “self-driving” project which has been dropped by Uber so far has been its delegation of self-driving trucks. This wasn’t due to budget concerns, but rather due to legal concerns.
Uber previously purchased a start-up called Otto, which developed self-driving trucks. Otto was owned by an individual who used to work for Google cars. However, after this owner’s departure from the company, Uber was hit with a lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that the company had stolen from Waymo, formerly known as Google’s self-driving car project. Uber managed to settle for $245 million merely after a week after the trial began and proceeded to shut it down.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
