That’s compared to its US$3.75-billion profit in the same quarter in 2018. Uber made US$2.76 billion in adjusted revenue for this quarter, a 14 per cent increase, slightly surpassed analysts’ expectations of US$2.75 billion. Revenues for its primary business, ride-sharing, grew nine per cent from the year previous, while revenues for its meal-delivery service, Uber Eats, nearly doubled. Uber’s loss this quarter was bigger than that of Lyft, its main rival, in all of 2018. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: Uber, which built its business around heavily-discounted rides, will now be cutting down on customer promotions to try and stymie losses, said its chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, on the firm’s conference call. He also said the company’s marketing expenses, as a percentage of its revenue, should fall in the second quarter. But Chai maintained that 2019 would be an “investment year,” saying the company “will not hesitate” to maintain its global market position through investments. This is Uber’s first earnings report since going public via a disappointing IPO. After raising enormous amounts of venture capital and investing heavily in marketing and ride subsidies, the company must now quell investors’ fears over its history of substantial losses and figure out a way to become profitable.