As Uber strengthens its position in the market, its focus on expanding services and enhancing customer loyalty is paying off, with notable growth in both membership and demand across its platforms. Uber says it is entering 2025 with momentum, driven by a surge in its Uber One membership program and increased demand across its Mobility and Delivery services.
During the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call Wednesday (Feb. 5), Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah noted, “we’re leaning into membership.” Uber added 5 million members to its Uber One program during the quarter, bringing its overall membership to 30 million.
Uber’s fourth-quarter gross bookings rose 18%, to $44.2 billion, with Mobility and Delivery bookings both increasing 18%. Revenue increased 20%, to $12 billion. For the full year, gross bookings increased 18%, to $162.7 billion, while revenue rose 18%, to $43.9 billion. Looking ahead to Q1 2025, the company expects gross bookings to grow 17% to 21%.
“The theme of this quarter is acceleration,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said. “We had a stellar quarter of growth for Uber One. Our member base now stands at 30 million, up roughly 60% year over year. With Uber One now available in every delivery country, we are driving incremental growth through improved retention and increased value for our customers.”
Khosrowshahi said Uber is “amplifying the power of Uber One” through experiential and use-case based benefits.
“For example, Uber One members can receive a 3 upgrade to Priority Delivery, resulting in faster delivery times, or get matched with top-rated shoppers when they order groceries,” he said. Similarly, we’ve rolled out new travel and commute benefits, including higher cashback discounts on premium rides and priority pickup to and from airports for members.”
Khosrowshahi said Uber recently announced a partnership with Delta Air Lines to allow Uber customers the opportunity to earn Delta SkyMiles when they ride and order. “Since the announcement, we’ve seen the waitlist grow to more than 300,000 people ahead of rewards beginning this spring,” he said.
Uber’s Mobility segment exceeded expectations, Khosrowshahi said, achieving 24% year-over-year growth in gross bookings, driven by a 26% increase in active drivers. The company focused on increasing demand through product innovation, launching services like Uber Business Black and Uber for Teens, and expanding low-cost options like UberX Share and Uber Shuttle.
“In the premium segment, we launched Uber Business Black, which reimagines the traditional black car experience, combining the luxury of premium car services with the flexibility, familiarity, and ease of Uber,” Khosrowshahi said. “Our Uber for Business offering is also seeing strong results, with gross bookings up approximately 50% year over year and there is still a long runway to further grow our share of wallet with the more than 200,000 companies and organizations we work with.”
He said the Uber for Teens product “has been a runaway hit in the U.S.,” with teen trips up 50% quarter over quarter. Uber has now rolled the product out to 50 countries.
In 2024, the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry reached a turning point, Khosrowshahi said, with several developers, including Waymo and Baidu, offering fully self-driving rides to the public, and others like Tesla and Nuro are expected to follow. Uber remains confident it is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the $1 trillion opportunity AVs will unlock in the U.S., he added.
“Naturally, investors are debating whether AVs pose a risk or present a massive opportunity for Uber,” Khosrowshahi said. “Based on our deep engagement with AV technology developers, auto OEMs, and other experts and technologists in the ecosystem, I am more confident than ever that Uber is uniquely positioned to capture the $1 trillion+ opportunity that autonomy will unlock in the U.S. alone. Even as we see AV technology advancing, we expect AV commercialization will take significantly longer.”
Several pieces of the go-to-market puzzle still need to come together, Khosrowshahi said, including a consistent safety record; enabling regulations; a cost-effective, scaled hardware platform; on-the-ground operations; and a high-utilization network that can manage variable demand.
“Every one of these five pieces must work in concert, or the puzzle falls apart,” he said. “For example, even the lowest-cost AV fleet will struggle to generate revenue if its vehicles are not highly utilized. And even a well-utilized but fixed fleet will struggle to meet consumer demand at peak times.”
With costs north of $200,000 per vehicle, “these cars are extremely expensive,” Khosrowshahi added. “To drive incremental TAM penetration, costs will need to come down dramatically — without compromising on safety. Even though OEM capacity remains a bottleneck to commercialization today, we believe that in the long run, autonomy will be an enabling technology and all new vehicles will be sold with L4-capable software. We are spending an enormous, yet appropriate, amount of organizational energy to execute on our AV strategy. Executing brilliantly on our AV strategy remains our highest priority.”