3 Strategic Growth Levers Powering Uber's Next Chapter

Globe and Mail

5 days ago

Key Points
Uber's core markets are still underpenetrated.
New revenue streams like Uber Ads and Uber One are scaling fast.
Uber's making a long-term bet on its autonomous strategy.
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Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) has come a long way from its cash-burning days.
In 2023, the company reached a long-awaited milestone: profitability according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Better still, it sustained its profitability into 2024, further cementing its position as an emerging technology giant.
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But it's not stopping there. Under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the company aims to leverage its strengths to deliver sustainable growth in the coming years.
Here are three strategic growth levers that could define Uber's next chapter.
1. Deepening penetration in existing services
Uber's core businesses -- mobility and delivery -- are both profitable and still underpenetrated in many markets. As these businesses scale further, Uber's ability to grow within its existing footprint could be a powerful profit driver.
For example, in mobility, Uber can increase trips per active user, especially in suburban and international markets. In delivery, it can grow order frequencies and basket sizes and expand into higher-value verticals like grocery and retail.
To this end, Uber One -- Uber's Amazon Prime-like membership program -- plays an important role in improving customer retention and wallet share. By offering a variety of perks across multiple services, Uber One gives customers strong incentives to increase usage -- whether it's rides, food, groceries, or parcels.
What makes this strategy compelling is the role of operating leverage. With Uber's fixed cost largely unchanged as the platform scales (or grows slower than revenue), the bulk of its incremental revenue tends to flow through to profit. In fact, in the most recent quarter, revenue rose 14% year over year, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew 35% and free cash flow surged 66% -- a clear sign that profitability is scaling faster than top-line growth.
In short, Uber doesn't need new markets to grow, it just needs existing users to do a little more.
2. Further monetization of its platform
With more than 150 million monthly active users across its apps, Uber has something few companies in local commerce have: recurring daily demand and distribution at scale. And it's beginning to monetize that in new ways.
For merchants, Uber Ads is becoming an important way to advertise their products and attract new potential customers. Merchants can pay for visibility across various services within the Uber app, be it in Uber Ride or Uber Eats. To put the opportunity into perspective, Uber announced that its advertising revenue had surpassed the $1.5 billion annual run rate in the first quarter of 2025.
On the consumer side, Uber One is another key monetization lever. With 19 million members, there's still significant headroom for growth. In addition to recurring subscription revenue, these members tend to spend more frequently across multiple services -- a win for both user engagement and unit economics.
More importantly, these monetization layers likely carry much higher margins than core transactions and could meaningfully expand Uber's blended profitability over time.
3. Betting on autonomous -- ride-hailing and delivery
Uber has long envisioned a world where autonomous vehicles power its platform. Although it sold off its internal self-driving unit early on, the company has shifted toward a partnership-first strategy.
Today, Uber is partnering with 18 autonomous vehicle (AV) companies, including Waymo and WeRide. Autonomous rides on Uber's platform are now pacing toward an annualized run rate of 1.5 million trips -- still small but growing steadily. Plus, outside of mobility, Uber is expanding autonomous deliveries to more U.S. cities with its partners, such as Coco in Chicago and Miami, Serve in Miami and Dallas, and Avride in Jersey City.
While full-scale AV adoption may be years away, Uber is positioning itself as a distribution layer for autonomy. If robotaxis and autonomous delivery scale in the future, Uber could benefit without bearing the capital burden.
What it means for investors
Uber has already proven it can scale. Now, it's focused on monetizing that scale more efficiently.
As the company deepens penetration in its core businesses, unlocks new monetization opportunities, and positions itself for a long-term autonomous future, Uber has multiple levers to sustain and grow its profits.
With a maturing business model, rising free cash flow, and optionality in next-gen mobility, Uber is quietly transitioning from a growth story into a profitable compounder.
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