Ahead of IPO, Uber's Losing Less--but Growing Less, Too

The year of the gig economy IPO continues, when Uber Thursday made public its first bit of official paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission--a sign that the tech company is preparing to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The filing shows a sprawling transportation business with operations stretching into 63 countries and over 700 cities, providing 5.2 billion rides in 2018: roughly one for every person in Europe and Asia. Uber pulled in $11.3 billion in revenue in 2018, a 42 percent jump over the year previous. And though its operating losses are still heavy--$3 billion in 2018--the company has managed to stem them, at least a bit, bringing operating losses down from $4.1 billion in 2017. Uber had 91 million active users at the end of 2018, 23 million more than a year earlier.