—at least on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—but investors are unmoved. Shares of the ride-hailer are down more than 8% since the company reported second-quarter earnings on Aug. 3. Despite reporting deepening losses on a sequential basis in the same period, Uber has seen its shares fare better, little changed from where they closed Aug. 4 before the company’s own quarterly report.
There may be limits to how much love ride-hailers’ money can buy. Food-delivery platforms haven’t had the same issues as their gig-economy counterparts. DoorDash said the second quarter brought more first-time drivers to its platform than any previous quarter, noting that over three million people “dashed” in the period. That comes despite the fact that ride-hailers have historically made more than food-delivery drivers and recently have been banking record pay in many areas.of over 4,000 U.S.
Not all gig-economy work is equally appealing to all drivers. Some of it might never be. According to the survey, 96% of DoorDash’s drivers don’t currently drive with ride-share platforms, while 82% said they have never done so and don’t plan to. Most cited safety as a concern—one unlikely to abate as the Delta variant continues to spread. Nearly three-quarters of those drivers said they didn’t want to share their vehicle, a staple of ride-hailing that won’t ever go away.
nice