Uber Puts the Brakes on Growth at Any Cost
It’s a rational move, but acting like a sensible company may also crimp its eventual size and ambition.
Investors want growth, but not if it means unsustainable spending or rash financial trade-offs.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Uber Technologies Inc. seems to have decided to stop chasing stupid growth. This is exactly what investors wanted, yet the company’s latest results, announced on Monday, show how far Uber has to go to be sustainable and rational.
In the third quarter, the total value of Uber rides, restaurant meal deliveries and other transactions increased 29% from a year earlier — the slowest rate of increase since Uber began reporting that figure. The total figure of $16.5 billion was also a little short of analysts’ expectations, as was the growth in average monthly customers using Uber services at least once. That most likely contributed to the after-market decline in Uber shares.