Uber eyes profitability before 2022: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi

Uber is aiming to become profitable before 2022 as its ride-sharing business matures and the company reaps the rewards from investments in areas such as autonomous vehicles, said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber.

Khosrowshahi was speaking to Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He, however, asserted that while turning core ride-sharing business profitable in three years the company will continue to make very aggressive investments.

The company is investing in autonomous driving technology and aims to launch the cars in within 18 months. The Uber CEO said he was originally more skeptical of driverless cars, but that he’s been won over. He predicted the technology is advancing so quickly that a child born today won’t need to learn to drive. 

Besides, it is also developing vehicles that will fly people to certain destinations within cities and will be available for customers within 10 years, according to Khosrowshahi.

He also revealed that the Uber may launch its initial public offering (IPO) as early as next year. The announcement comes after the San Francisco-based company closed the investment deal with Softbank, where the latter will invest more than $7 billion in Uber for a 15 per cent stake in the ride-hailing startup.

However, as the ride-hailing company looks towards profitability, it has also witnessed its losses soaring.

The San-Francisco based company suffered a loss of $1.46 billion in the third quarter of last year. The net loss increased 38 percent from the second quarter, when it was $1.06 billion.

The company witnessed a rise of 11 per cent in gross bookings, which reached $9.71 billion in the period that ended in September. In the second quarter, the total booking was of worth $8.74 billion. Net revenue grew 21 percent to $2.01 billion in the third quarter from $1.66 billion, according to Uber.