Uber's ride bookings rose 18% but ride revenue fell 2%: a change in Britain explains much of it

In the three months to September, people booked $59.8 billion of rides, meals and freight through Uber's apps, up 20% from a year earlier. They took 16% more trips. Yet the business Uber started with, ride-hailing, brought in less revenue than a year ago. Mobility revenue fell 2% to $7.52 billion, CNBC reported, below the $7.71 billion analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.

Overall, revenue rose 10% to $14.8 billion, Uber said on Wednesday morning, before the US market opened. That was a little ahead of forecasts: CNBC put the analysts' average at $14.69 billion, and the Associated Press, citing Zacks, at $14.74 billion.

This story is about the gap between those two lines: more rides booked, less ride revenue. Much of it comes from a change in how Uber runs rides in Britain, which changes what counts as revenue without changing how many people ride. But not all of it. Uber's own chief executive says something real is holding rides back.

More rides, less revenue

Gross bookings are the total value of what customers pay for rides and orders on Uber's platform. Revenue is the part Uber counts as its own, and how much of a booking that is depends on how Uber is set up in each market. In its results release, Uber said that "Business model changes negatively impacted total revenue YoY growth by 8 percentage points". Without them, revenue would have grown much closer to bookings.

The release doesn't say which changes. Uber's 10-Q for the second quarter does. "Effective January 2, 2026, we implemented a business model change in certain UK markets, primarily driven by regulatory and tax considerations," it says. Since then, "we are no longer responsible for the Mobility services in these markets, and accordingly, payments to drivers are recorded as a reduction of revenue instead of cost of revenue." In plain terms, a British fare used to count as Uber's revenue, with the driver's pay as a cost. Now only Uber's share counts.

In the second quarter, that change cut revenue by $1.1 billion, the 10-Q says. The same date appears elsewhere in that filing: from January 2, "UK Private Hire Operators are no longer permitted to apply the VAT Order 1987," a rule that let ride companies pay value-added tax on their margin rather than on the whole fare. Uber's 10-Q for the third quarter, with the new figure for Britain, had not been filed when this was written.

The part that isn't accounting

Bookings don't depend on that change, and the growth in ride bookings slowed. Mobility bookings rose 18% to $29.51 billion, short of the $29.8 billion analysts expected, MoneyCheck reported. In the second quarter they grew 22%, according to that quarter's 10-Q.

Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive, gave his reasons in prepared remarks reported by CNBC: "Elevated fuel prices and tighter driver availability weighed on supply growth in several international markets," he said, adding that Uber is making "targeted investments to strengthen driver supply." MoneyCheck reported that he told CNBC ride demand is outrunning supply, and that Uber would add vehicles rather than raise prices. Uber also said the conflict in the Middle East held back ride bookings growth in the quarter, according to MoneyCheck, which said the company assumes a larger drag in the fourth quarter.

Part of Uber's answer is robotaxis. "Our focus on autonomous is now on commercial execution, with approximately 700 fully driverless vehicles expected on Uber by year-end and over 2,000 in 2027," Khosrowshahi said in the release. CNBC reported that the 2027 fleet would be "half operating in the U.S. and half internationally."

Delivery and freight carried the quarter

Food and grocery delivery grew faster than rides. Delivery bookings rose 22% to $28.54 billion, MoneyCheck reported, nearly as much as rides. Delivery revenue rose 23% to $5.49 billion, just under the $5.51 billion analysts had expected, according to CNBC. Khosrowshahi said an expanded partnership with Costco in the US is "tracking ahead of expectations."

The smallest unit made the difference. "Uber's revenue beat was due to growth in its freight division," CNBC reported. Freight revenue rose 34% to $1.76 billion, against a forecast of $1.49 billion.

A 92% profit drop that isn't what it seems

Net income was $512 million, down 92% from a year earlier, CNBC reported. The fall says little about the business. A year ago, net income included "a $4.9 billion benefit from a tax valuation release" and a $1.5 billion gain on Uber's stakes in other companies, the release says. This quarter those stakes lost $476 million.

The business itself made more money. Income from operations rose 30% to $1.4 billion. Operations brought in $2.6 billion of cash, and free cash flow, the cash left after spending on equipment, was $2.5 billion. For scale, Uber lost $8.6 billion at the operating level in 2019 and earned $5.6 billion in 2025, its annual reports show.

The next quarter, and a departure

For the last three months of the year, Uber expects bookings of $63.25 billion to $65.25 billion, growth of 18% to 22% at constant exchange rates. CNBC reported that the $64.5 billion midpoint was in line with the $64.26 billion analysts expected. Profit guidance was the weaker part: Uber expects adjusted earnings per share of $0.95 to $0.99, against analysts' estimate of $1, MoneyCheck reported.

The same filing that carried the results announced a departure. Jill Hazelbaker, "President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, will step down from her role on November 30, 2026, for an external opportunity," Uber said in its 8-K. Khosrowshahi called her "a deeply trusted advisor to me and many others."

What it adds up to

This is analysis, not advice. For most of this year, Uber's revenue line has said less about its business than usual. The British change came in on January 2, so it is in every comparison with 2025 and drops out of the comparisons in early 2027. From then on, if nothing else changes, revenue growth should move back toward bookings growth. If it doesn't, something other than Britain is pulling revenue down.

The question this quarter raises is about drivers, not accounting. Ride bookings growth slowed to 18% from 22%, and Uber's chief executive puts that down to fuel prices, conflict in the Middle East and too few drivers abroad. Those are causes Uber can work on only partly. Robotaxis may help in some cities, but a few thousand cars are small next to a business that handled $29.51 billion of rides in a single quarter. If ride bookings growth holds near this quarter's pace while the fourth-quarter outlook is met, the slowdown was a bad patch. If it slips further, the business Uber was built on is growing more slowly than the one it added.

These figures come from the earnings release, the 8-K, Uber's earlier 10-Q and news reports; this story doesn't draw on Uber's call with analysts, which began at 8 a.m. Eastern. More figures are on its company page. Uber's riders are still coming. The question now is whether there will be enough drivers to take them.