Uber's number of rides worldwide by quarter 2017-2023

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Uber's ridership worldwide totaled 2.6 billion trips. This compares to 2.1 billion trips in the first quarter of 2022, representing an increase of 24 percent year-on-year.

A brief overview of Uber Technologies

Uber Technologies Corporation started as a ridesharing company to disrupt the traditional taxi services industry. Having observed the global lucrativeness of the sharing economy in the upcoming years, Uber expanded its business profile to reshape the entire transportation industry, from food delivery and logistics to transport of people. As a result of strategic market positioning, the company experienced strong growth. The net revenue of Uber increased over 75 times in ten years, up from 0.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to 37.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Uber Technologies reported being profitable for the first time since 2018, posting a net profit of roughly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars during the fiscal year of 2023. 

Competition in the sharing economy

Uber has been operating in a highly competitive environment since it introduced its first differentiated cab services. One of the major competitors of Uber Technologies is the San Francisco-based Lyft. Although Lyft is a latecomer into the ride-sharing business, Lyft progressively worked on weaknesses exhibited by Uber to strengthen its position against Uber and other competitors. Besides, Lyft is one of the major innovators in the sharing economy along with Uber Technologies. In 2022, Lyft Corporation invested nearly 556 million U.S. dollars into research and development globally, which has been scaled back in recent years. Lyft generated 4.4 billion U.S. dollars in global revenue during 2023.