Uber rakes in $50bn in booking ahead of IPO

Uber Technologies Inc had $50 billion in total bookings for its ride-service and food-delivery businesses last year.

This confirms the size and global reach of the company as it prepares to woo investors in one of the biggest public stock listings to date.

However,  the company released a figure on Friday showing revenue grew just 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

According to analysts, this is a sign that Uber continues to heavily subsidize rides in competitive markets, raising questions about its future growth prospects.

The company full-year revenue for 2018 was $11.3 billion, up 43 percent from the prior year. Its losses before taxes, depreciation and other expenses were $1.8 billion, an improvement over the $2.2 billion loss posted in 2017.

Uber highlighted the annual bookings figure, which was up 45 percent over 2017, in its release on Friday of a smattering of selected figures for its fourth-quarter and full-year results, a practice it has had for the last several quarters as it anticipated going public. The full-year figures are particularly important to show potential investors the trajectory of the business, as opposed to Uber’s more erratic quarterly results.

“Last year was our strongest yet, and Q4 set another record,” Uber Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai said in a statement.

Uber said gross bookings for the fourth quarter were a record $14.2 billion, up 11 percent from the prior quarter. That marks an improvement after bookings growth slowed to just single-digit percentages throughout much of last year.

Uber’s revenue in the fourth quarter reached $3 billion, up 2 percent from the third quarter and a 24 percent increase over the previous year.