Uber could already be making money but isn’t interesting in doing so in the immediate future so as to not “sacrifice growth and sacrifice innovation,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said earlier this week at San Francisco-based Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. His appearance at the event held in Uber’s hometown came shortly after the compy revealed some of its recent financial results, disclosing that it lost $4.5 billion over 2017. The 48-year-old isn’t worried about that performance, touting Uber’s revenue growth that’s been outpacing its losses in recent times, primarily because the startup became more frugal in its spending while continuing to expand its operations.
While most industry analysts believe Uber’s aggressive spending in research and development for self-driving cars has been a major contributor to its deficit, Mr. Khosrowshahi pointed out the company’s commitment to various developing countries as the most significant factor keeping its bottom line deeply in the red. Uber remains adamant to continue fueling its growth in such markets because that’s the “right thing to do,” according to the CEO. In the long-term, the company is still pursuing autonomous driving as its endgame, with Mr. Khosrowshahi claiming driverless vehicles are the only reliable method for decreasing the costs of transportation. Following the sudden closure of its legal episode with Waymo that some experts have been describing as a “Tom Clancy novel,” Uber is now in a more stable position than it has been in over a year, with the majority of its previously emerged scandals being behind it. While the company isn’t making profitability a priority, its core business is likely to start making money by 2021, Mr. Khosrowshahi said late last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The CEO who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as the head of the world’s largest ride-hailing service provider said Uber is now striving to be as “beloved” as Silicon Valley darlings such as Google. His efforts to reimagine the company’s image started with a global apology tour that has yet to be concluded but will need to be accelerated if Uber is to reach a position that’s healthy enough for an IPO in 2019 which it’s presently targeting.