UPDATED 00:06 EDT / AUGUST 26 2016

NEWS

Uber burned through $1.27b+ in first half of 2016 in efforts to dominate ridesharing market

How much of Uber Technologies, Inc.’s war chest is the ridesharing unicorn currently burning through in its efforts to dominate the ridesharing market globally?

$1.27+ billion in the first six months of 2016, according to multiple reports Thursday.

According to Bloomberg, Uber lost $520 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the first quarter of 2016, followed by second quarter loses that “exceeded” $750 million, including $100 million in the United States, a market Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick has previously claimed was profitable.

Much of the loss is attributed to Uber’s push into China, where it had previously said it was losing $1 billion a year due to driver subsidies, strongly explaining why the company sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing Technology Co. at the beginning of August in a deal that gave Uber a 20 percent stake in Didi, valued at $7 billion, along with Did investing $1 billion in Uber itself.

The surprise losses in the United States are said to be due to Uber’s ongoing price war with Lyft, Inc., with the company said to have told investors in a call that it’s willing to continue to spend money in its home country to maintain a market share of between 84 to 87 percent, a figure disputed by Lyft who claim they have over a 20 percent market share.

Growing

While the headline losses rightly dominate headlines, there was good news for Uber with a source telling The New York Times that the company posted significant revenue growth in the second quarter, including a 31 percent jump to $5 billion in second-quarter bookings.

Net revenue, the figure Uber is left with after paying drivers was said to be $960 million in the first quarter before increasing to $1.1 billion in the second quarter.

Uber had previously predicted that it would see bookings of $26.12 billion in 2016, up from $10.84 billion in 2015, $2.91 billion in 2014 and $687.8 million in 2013; at $5 billion for the second quarter and a presumed growth rate in the third and fourth quarters it may hit close to its target, be it an adjusted figure given that it no longer operates in China.

Growth figures, of course, mean nothing when you’re burning through money like there is no tomorrow. Uber still has the challenge of trying to make itself profitable, but with an estimated $9 billion in the bank, it still has a reasonable amount of time on its hands to get there.

Image credit: mikeporesky/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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