Uber | Company course

Course contents

Unit 0: First Impressions (free)

What kind of company is Uber?

1. Getting to know Uber: rides, food delivery and trucks for businesses
2. A short history: from hailing rides in San Francisco to self-driving bets and a delivery acquisition
3. How big is Uber: bookings, revenue, users, drivers and shareholders

Unit 1: How the Business Works (free)

How much does Uber keep from each order, and what makes profit grow?

1. Following one fare: rider, driver, Uber, insurers and payment networks
2. Of every $100 of Gross Bookings, $75 to $81 never becomes Uber's revenue
3. Gross margin barely moved in three years; profit improved because costs were spread thinner

Unit 2: Breaking Down the Business (free)

How do Mobility, Delivery and Freight each make money?

1. Three segments and one profit measure: Mobility, Delivery and Freight
2. Mobility and Delivery have similar bookings, but Mobility's profit is about twice as large
3. Why Mobility and Delivery sit together: shared accounts, maps, payments and membership

Unit 3: Competition

Where does Uber compete, against whom, and how does its position differ?

1. Start with the battlefield: U.S. rides and U.S. delivery are two different positions
2. Delivery is consolidating, and in rides self-driving companies are building their own apps
3. Cross-company comparisons: align revenue presentation, profit scope and expense coverage

Unit 4: Moats and Advantages

Which advantages are hard to copy, and which can be bought?

1. The city-by-city hurdles: licenses, insurance and driver density
2. The advantage of spread-out headquarters costs: rivals are growing through acquisitions too
3. Membership and other advantages: compare actual benefits, structural limits and trend evidence

Unit 5: Growth and Limits

Where can Gross Bookings still grow, and will margin gains slow?

1. The company's own penetration anchors: even the highest-penetration country has under 20% of adults using Uber
2. Gross Bookings growth comes from more trips at lower price points, and Delivery's share is rising
3. Spreading is slowing: the quarterly gain in margin is about 0.1 percentage points

Unit 6: Financial Health Check

How should Uber's profit and capital be adjusted before they make sense?

1. Why Mobility's revenue margin fell about 4 points in one quarter without hurting profit
2. About 60% of 2024 and 2025 net income came from releasing tax assets
3. How to read low capital spending, insurance arrangements and year-end book capital

Unit 7: Management

What key decisions has this team made, and where has the money gone?

1. The team that took over in 2017, and who owns Uber today
2. Ten years of acquisitions and investments: some have results, some are too early to judge
3. Changing participation in autonomous driving: selling ATG while continuing investment and cooperation

Unit 8: Pricing Power and Bargaining Power

How does Uber quote prices, how do membership and advertising contribute revenue, and how does cost spreading affect profit?

1. How Uber quotes prices: choices and constraints across eleven relationships
2. Membership, advertising and product tiers: interpreting growth
3. Service transactions and user relationships: separating revenue, quotes and cost spreading

Unit 9: Risks and What to Track

What could change this business's profits, and what to watch next?

1. Which money autonomous vehicles change: investment, cities and the take rate
2. Adjustments to make before valuing Uber: taxes, equity remeasurement and stock-based compensation
3. Five numbers to read first next quarter, and what would change the judgment

Uber glossary

Gross Bookings

Everything riders and eaters pay in the app, including taxes and tolls but not tips. Most of it goes to drivers and merchants, so it is not the same as revenue.

Revenue margin

Revenue divided by Gross Bookings: how much of every $100 of bookings Uber records as revenue. It depends on accounting choices and is not the same as the take rate charged to drivers.

Take rate

The share of each trip that Uber keeps from drivers or merchants. The company does not publish it directly.

Gross basis / net basis

On a gross basis, the whole fare is revenue and the driver's share is a cost; on a net basis, only Uber's service fee is revenue. Profit is the same either way, but revenue differs a lot.

Segment operating income

The segment profit measure Uber has used since 2026, after stock-based compensation and depreciation. The course calls it segment profit and usually compares it with Gross Bookings.

Non-GAAP operating income

The adjusted profit measure Uber has reported since 2026. It starts from reported operating income and adds back items such as amortization of acquired intangibles and some legal and acquisition-related costs.

Corporate overhead

Company-level administration and platform R&D costs not allocated to segments. These need not grow in proportion to trips and differ in scope from a competitor's total group administration and R&D expenses.

Gross margin (estimated)

Uber does not report gross profit. The course estimates it as 1 minus cost of revenue divided by revenue: about 40% in 2023 to 2025.

Monthly Active Platform Consumers (MAPCs)

People who complete at least one ride or delivery in a month; someone who uses both counts once.

Uber One

A paid monthly or annual membership offering eligible benefits across rides and delivery. Members' share of Gross Bookings and the incremental profit from membership measure different things.

Deferred tax assets and valuation allowance

Future tax savings from past losses. When a company judges it will stay profitable, it releases the allowance it held against them and books a one-time tax benefit that inflates net income.

Comparable net income

The course's net income excluding one-time releases of tax valuation allowances, computed at a 27.4% tax rate, used to compare underlying profit across years.

Insurance reserves

Money set aside for trip accidents that have happened but are not yet fully paid. Claims take years to settle, and regulators require matching assets to be held aside, which Uber cannot freely use.

Return on invested capital (ROIC)

After-tax operating profit divided by a clearly defined capital base. Profit and capital should cover matching activities, with the use of period-end or average capital specified. A negative denominator permits division but usually does not support the conventional interpretation of a return on capital.

Tender offer

A public offer to all shareholders of a listed company to buy their shares at the same price. Uber offered €41.50 per share for Delivery Hero.

Autonomous ride-hailing

Transport in which an automated driving system performs the driving. Uber organizes commercialization with technology and fleet partners through equity investments, facilities and vehicle support, and also carries out data-support work through AV Labs.

Frequently asked questions

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