Uber Eats Doubled Business During The Pandemic But Ride-Sharing Plummeted

Uber (UBER) on Thursday reported that the outbreak of coronavirus resulted in Uber Eats, its food delivery business, doubling its business in the second quarter. Conversely, the many lockdowns caused by the pandemic took a significant toll on the company’s ride-sharing business, which is only just beginning to recover.

Uber’s revenue for the quarter fell by 29%, down to $2.24 billion, which still beat the $2.18 billion estimate given by financial analysts. The quarter also saw the company post a net loss of $1.8 billion – $837 million adjusted – with the substantial ride-sharing portion of its business down 75% since last year.

Meanwhile, revenue from Uber Eats hit $1.2 billion after doubling over the last quarter. In response to this skyrocketing demand, the company last month announced the purchase of delivery company Postmates for $2.65 billion in a bid to expand its reach.

“We are fortunate to have both a global footprint and such a natural hedge across our two core segments: as some people stay closer to home, more people are ordering from Uber Eats than ever before,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

Despite the promising success of Uber Eats, the overall picture for Uber appears grim. The ongoing pandemic led to the company paying 23% of its global workforce, the costs of which contributed to its losses. Total active users of its platform fell by nearly half, down from 99 million in 2019 to 55 million in 2020.

Shares on Uber on Thursday closed at $34.71, a gain of 4.55%.