may not be a publicly-traded company (yet) but that doesn鈥檛 stop the ride hailing, bike sharing, scooter scattering, and ridiculously well-funded, on-demand transportation company from disclosing its quarterly 2018 financial results publicly.
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The company did just that on Wednesday afternoon this week. The bottom line? Uber continues to grow its business, but at high cost and at a slowing rate of change. 附近上门 News summarized the numbers and commentary this morning.
But like most types of data, it鈥檚 often easier to understand the situation on the ground in graphic form. So, we charted the data Uber and will present those below.1
Let鈥檚 start with Uber鈥檚 core financial performance.

Uber calculates its cash inflows in two primary ways: what it calls 鈥淕ross Bookings鈥 and the more traditional 鈥漬et revenue鈥 measure. Gross Bookings, according to the Wall Street Journal, is 鈥渢he total value of trips before Uber takes its cut of the rides,鈥 which 鈥渕easures the overall demand鈥 for Uber鈥檚 various services. Net revenue refers to the company鈥檚 revenue (which Uber generates by charging a market-making fee) after accounting or discounts and returns.
As various outlets have already reported, growth in gross bookings and net revenue are beginning to slow. This may spook some investors hoping for hockey stick-shaped growth charts, which may make Uber鈥檚 growth-predicated valuation difficult to defend if growth stagnates over the long run.
Next, let鈥檚 take a look at two metrics which help measure the health of Uber鈥檚 business: the ratio of net revenue to gross bookings (how much of all transaction volume Uber keeps for itself), and the ratio of gross profit to net revenue (gross margin), both presented in percentage terms.

Gross margin鈥攄erived by dividing gross profit by net revenue鈥攊s demarcated in yellow. Uber鈥檚 gross margin is up, marginally, from the same time period last year but down from the prior quarter. Uber鈥檚 cut of bookings is mostly flat.
Next, let鈥檚 take a look at the numbers Uber would like us to think are most reflective of its financial performance. Note that the EBITDA metric is subject to some financial chicanery because one can strip out some types of expenses.

Don鈥檛 let the reported profit in Q1 fool you. Uber still loses a lot of money. The profit, some $2.5 billion, is mostly the proceeds from sales of two international units鈥攁 total of $2.94 billion for selling its Russian operation to , and its Southeast Asian unit to .
Finally, here鈥檚 what Uber reports as its cash reserves and long-term debt.

Since Q1 of this year, Uber added $1.56 billion to its long term debt load, growing that figure by approximately 50 percent. Uber boosted its reserves of cash, restricted cash, and cash equivalents by nearly $1 billion in that same period.
Uber just recently began reporting its financial performance publicly. The company, now under 鈥檚 leadership, has one foot in the private markets, and, at least with respect to financial reporting, it has a foot in the public market door. How the market will ultimately value the cash-burning transportation giant is a question for public market investors to answer in 2019 at the earliest.
滨濒濒耻蝉迟谤补迟颈辞苍:听
One thing to note before continuing: Uber disclosed its financials to a number of media organizations, but we found WSJ鈥檚 numbers to be the most complete.↩
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