Dive Brief:
- The two major ride-hailing companies reported strong growth in ridership in the second quarter of 2022 during earnings calls this week. Uber reported its quarterly revenues grew 105% year over year, while Lyft’s revenues for Q2 grew 30% over its Q2 2021 performance.
- Both Uber and Lyft gained more drivers in their systems, helping to reduce wait times, executives from the companies said.
- Lyft executives said that bike and scooter rides more than doubled in Q2 compared with the first quarter. First-time users of those vehicles grew 7% in the first half of 2022.
Dive Insight:
Both Uber and Lyft are regaining traction following the loss of drivers in 2020 and 2021. As riders returned, demand for rides outstripped supply, resulting in longer wait times and higher fares. In Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere, riders were shocked by soaring fares.
“We continued to add more drivers onto the Uber platform, with our global driver and courier earner base at an all-time high,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during Tuesday’s earnings call. Uber riders in the U.S. are also experiencing a lower percentage of trips with surge pricing than they did last year, the company reported.
Logan Green, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft, said during Thursday’s earnings call that rider demand increased 27% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis. The company reported 19.9 million active riders during the second quarter. At the same time, wait times were three minutes shorter than the same period last year, said Green.
The rebound in consumer travel increased the number of trips to the airport, according to Lyft executives. Airport rides were 10.2% of all rides during the quarter, said Green.
Lyft has been reintroducing shared rides, which it halted during the pandemic, and they are now available in 14 markets, Lyft President John Zimmer said on the call. Shared rides now are 20% of all rides in Philadelphia, he added.
Zimmer also noted that more than 2.4 million people tried Lyft-operated bikes and scooters for the first time last year. Bike rides in New York City more than doubled in Q2 compared with the first quarter of this year. “In Chicago and Denver, our scooter systems reached new daily highs during Q2,” he said.
