Uber still holds 74 percent of the ride-hailing market in the United States, market analytics company Second Measure found earlier this month. According to the same data collected in September, Uber’s main rival Lyft presently has 22 percent of the market, with the remaining four percent being distributed among all other companies operating in the country. While Uber’s leadership in the segment continues, the San Francisco, California-based firm isn’t as dominant as it was 12 months ago when it held 83 percent of the market, Second Measure said. In the last year, Lyft managed to grow its business by 33 percent, with Uber’s performance increase amounting to 15 percentage points, though the size of its U.S. operations still dwarfs the one of its biggest rival, being approximately 3.3 times larger.
The San Mateo, California-based analytics company believes that the ride-hailing giant largely recovered from the “#DeleteUber” online campaign from January when a significant portion of the U.S. population rallied against it over reports that it intended to profit from a protest against President Trump’s controversial executive order temporarily banning immigration from certain Middle Eastern countries by raising prices in areas where protesters were gathering. According to some estimates, Uber lost approximately 200,000 customers over a single weekend as a result of the campaign, though it managed to recover its sales to their previous level as early as March. Many consumers using ride-hailing services in the country still appear to be somewhat loyal, as only every tenth such American said they used both Uber and Lyft as part of the research firm’s September study. Lyft’s loyalists grew from 13 percent in December to 19 percentage points in November, according to the same data, with this metric being one of the main indicators that the company founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer in 2012 is presently gaining significant traction.
Second Measure also highlighted the fact that the ride-hailing business is still in its infancy, with neither Uber nor Lyft currently having a large portion of the U.S. population using their services. In September, only 10 percent of American consumers took a ride with Uber and just four percent used Lyft. Refer to the gallery below for a more detailed breakdown of the ride-hailing market in the U.S. based on Second Measure’s latest findings.
