Jakarta –
Uber Technologies Inc’s online ride-hailing service noted the number of drivers has reached an all-time high. Concerns about the rising cost of living make people want to find new sources of income.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the current number of drivers is almost 5 million people to pick up passengers or make food and beverage deliveries. That’s 31% more than last year.
Previously, during the COVID-19 pandemic Uber had a shortage of drivers leading to longer waiting times for customers. High gasoline prices also make it difficult to earn money on the platform.
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Nowadays, the interest in becoming a driver in the company is increasing despite these costs. “That’s right, more people are earning on Uber today than before the pandemic,” Khosrowshahi said BBCWednesday (3/8/2022).
Uber recently rolled out another change, one of which is allowing drivers to see how much they’re going to make before agreeing to take an order. This aims to make their platform more attractive to drivers.
“Rather than relying solely on financial incentives, our goal is to improve the overall driver experience,” said Khosrowshahi.
Higher demand as the number of drivers plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic also attracted more drivers. Uber said there were 1.87 billion rides on the platform in the April-June 2022 period, an average of about 21 million per day, up 24% from last year and 12% more than 2019.
The rise in demand helped push orders up 33 percent to $29.1 billion. Revenue more than doubled to $8.1 billion, although some of that was due to changes in the way the company considers its UK business.
Despite the profit, the company lost $2.6 billion. More than half of it was due to the decline in the value of its shares in foreign companies such as Zomato, Grab, and Aurora.
Uber shares jumped more than 13% after better-than-expected results. Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said the figures show a path for Uber to become profitable, despite inflationary pressures and lingering driver shortages in some cities.
“In short, even though ride-sharing prices are rising across the US/Europe, it’s clear consumers are still turning to the Uber platform especially as travel, work, and other post-pandemic trends are taking place globally. That way Uber is poised to be profitable until 2023,” said Ives.
(aid/eds)
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