Uber sees record gross bookings in March

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous, Julia La Roche and Kristin Myers discuss demand for Uber’s ride-sharing unit.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, let's talk Uber right now because if you couldn't rent a car, you probably had to turn to an app like Uber. And Uber saying that they posted a record number of bookings last month. We have Yahoo Finance's Julia La Roche here with all of those details. Hi, Julia.

JULIA LA ROCHE: That's right. And Kristin, I was trying to get an Uber over the weekend. And it was quite a long wait. And that's because they are seeing a recovery in demand for those rides. That recovery is going a lot faster than they have the drivers to kind of meet that capacity. And also keep in mind, their delivery business is also seeing the demand kind of outstrip the capacity when it comes to the couriers.

So they put out an 8-K filing earlier today. And they said, quote, "As vaccination rates increase in the United States, we're observing that consumer demand for mobility is recovering faster than driver availability. And consumer demand for delivery continues to exceed courier availability."

And just last week, Kristin, Uber launched a $250 million driver stimulus is what they called it to boost earnings for their existing drivers, to also kind of lure back some of those drivers that stopped driving last year during the pandemic, some folks because there wasn't the demand to make it worth their while, some folks because of safety concerns. But also this stimulus to kind of attract even new drivers to Uber as they see this increase in demand as we emerge from the pandemic.

Elsewhere in that filing, Uber, as you were mentioning earlier, saw its total gross bookings reach the highest levels in the company's nearly 12-year history. Now, for the mobility business, that business had its best month since March of 2020, passing that $30 billion annualized gross booking run rate.

The company also said that its average daily gross bookings for mobility were up 9% month over month. And when it comes to that delivery business, they saw a record in delivery in the month of March, crossing the 52 billion in annualized gross booking run rate. The delivery business has grown 150% year over year. That's what the company said.

Uber also said that it continues to believe that it is on track to reach quarterly adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2021. Now, the company will report its first quarter earnings results on May 5 after the closing bell. Kristin?

KRISTIN MYERS: Absolutely. I thought I was alone in having to wait a really long time for an Uber driver to show up. And the prices were incredibly high. Now I'm seeing the reason why. Yahoo Finance's Julia La Roche, thanks so much for stopping by with those details.