In a bleak period for tech companies, Uber has soared.
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the ride-share giant posted $8.6 billion in revenue for the quarter ending on Dec. 31.
That’s a 49% uptick from the same time period last year, per The New York Times.
“We ended 2022 with our strongest quarter ever, with robust demand and record margins,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in the earnings report.
It appears that among the technology industry, which has laid off thousands of workers and broadly struggled amid inflation and people returning to post-lockdown life, Uber is something of an outlier.
Related: More Than 1,600 Tech Workers Are Being Laid Off A Day On Average In 2023, According to a New Report
Companies from Amazon to Meta to Google have offloaded thousands of employees, but the post-pandemic buffets were more like a wind at Uber’s back.
“All of those other tech companies in hindsight now look to have overhired during the digital boom of the pandemic, when we were all stuck inside using digital services,” an analyst at D.A. Davidson, Tom White, told the NYT.
Uber has two main business sectors: mobility, which covers things like ride-hailing, and delivery, which includes services like Uber Eats. Across its entire business, the company reported an increase in total bookings of 19% in the quarter year-over-year.
Daniel Ives, a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC it was the company’s best quarter since its IPO in 2019.
There’s “green grass ahead,” Ives added.
Uber’s positive performance further puts pressure on competitor Lyft to “cut costs,” he said. Lyft is set to post its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday.
