Uber Technologies Inc. reported weaker-than-expected quarterly gross bookings, citing lower U.S. inbound travel that’s led to slower gains in its rideshare business.
Gross bookings, which include ride hails, delivery orders, and driver and merchant earnings but not tips, were $42.8 billion in the first three months of 2025, Uber said in a statement Wednesday. Analysts projected $43.1 billion, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Revenue also landed below expectations at $11.5 billion, as did operating income.
A decline in U.S. inbound travel partly led to decreased gross bookings per trip, Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah said on an earnings call with analysts. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar against Brazilian, Mexican and Argentine currencies also created an “outsized headwind” for its rides business, he said earlier in prepared remarks. But even at constant currency rates, rideshare bookings in the period slowed to 20% from 24% in the prior quarter.
The miss on the mobility side was big enough to offset better-than-expected results at Uber’s delivery unit. The company’s stock fell as much as 6.7% after markets opened in New York.
Fewer tourists have been coming into the US amid increased hostility at the border and an ongoing trade war, contributing to less business for travel-dependent companies like Uber and Airbnb Inc. Last week, Airbnb noted “softness” in Canadian travel to the U.S. in its first-quarter results and a jump in Canadian travel to destinations in Mexico.
Uber’s U.S. rideshare business accounts for more than half of its profitability. During the reported quarter, US consumer confidence worsened on concerns about higher prices and the economic outlook amid Trump’s escalating tariffs. In March, sentiment tumbled to the lowest level in four years.
In an interview with CNBC after the results, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said while the company has not yet observed any signs of consumer weakness or users trading down to more affordable services, it’s seen “more travel spend internationally than in the US.”
“Otherwise the consumer remains strong,” he said, adding that Uber’s core categories of transportation and food delivery tend to be “quite recession-resistant.”
The company in February disappointed investors when it issued a weaker-than-expected first-quarter bookings forecast, warning of external factors such as the Los Angeles fires and extreme winter weather. This guidance was already likely baked into analysts’ bookings estimates for the period, which Uber still missed.
Trips have also gotten pricier in some markets, which Uber has blamed on rising insurance costs it passes on to riders. Those insurance pressures have been moderating, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks.
Uber’s income was a bright a spot in the first quarter, with diluted earnings coming in at 83 cents a share, far exceeding the average analyst estimate of 51 cents. The beat stemmed from revaluations of its stakes in other companies, it said.
For the current period, it forecast bookings of $45.75 billion to $47.25 billion, with the mid-point exceeding the average analyst estimate of $45.8 billion. The outlook for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization was also a beat.
A diversifying business
Uber said it has several growth initiatives underway, including plans to grow its city count “by several hundred” this year, particularly less densely populated areas. It said customers in sparser places, which make up more than 20% of mobility trips, “increasingly” turning to scheduled rides that aren’t related to airport travel.
Its taxi offering, which has expanded to more than 500 cities in the US and abroad, saw a 60% bump in annualized gross bookings in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier period.
Competition in the taxi business is set to grow with rival Lyft Inc. piloting taxis in the US, Bloomberg News reported last month. It’s also acquiring the European taxi app Freenow. Uber said taxis represent more than 10% of rides in the EMEA region.
Autonomous ride-hail vehicles are also of particular interest to Uber, which has inked more than a dozen partnerships in that space over the past year. Since March, it’s launched about 100 robotaxis on its platform in Austin through an exclusive arrangement with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit, which Khosrowshahi said are “now busier than over 99% of all drivers” there in terms of completed trips per day.
It plans to grow the Austin fleet to “hundreds” of cars “over the coming months,” he said, and more launches are expected in the US and globally with various partners, including in Atlanta and Dallas.
Uber is expanding its delivery business as well. On Tuesday, it announced it’s buying a $700 million controlling stake in the Turkish delivery platform Trendyol Go, which is majority-owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The company sees Turkey as its third-largest untapped delivery market globally after India and Brazil, Mahendra-Rajah said in the remarks.
