1. The Uber Eats Service Is Driving a Lot of Uber’s Bookings Growth
In Q4, Uber’s ride-sharing bookings rose 25% annually to $11.48 billion, while its Uber Eats bookings rose 129% to $2.56 billion. The company also got $129 million in bookings from “Other Bets,” which primarily consists of its Uber Freight service for shippers, up from $35 million a year ago.
2. A Declining Take Rate (Driven in Large Part By Uber Eats) Is Weighing on Revenue Growth
The biggest culprit behind the take rate decline: Uber Eats, which as previously noted is seeing much stronger bookings growth than Uber’s ride-sharing services, had a take rate of just 6.4%. That more than 50% below a year-ago level of 13.3%.
Uber observes that whereas its ride-sharing business only has to make payments to drivers, Uber Eats has to pay out both drivers and restaurants. The company also says its Uber Eats take rate has been pressured by deals with “large-volume restaurants” that carry low service fees, and by strong competition in places such as the U.S. and India. In the U.S., both GrubHub (GRUB – Get Report) and private DoorDash are major rivals, and Amazon.com (AMZN – Get Report) has also been trying to grow its restaurant-delivery business.