- 17 hours ago
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Dara, it's good to have you here.
00:01You'll be pleased to know that we did an informal straw poll earlier
00:04to see how many people came in Ubers, how many came in Waymos.
00:07The Ubers were about 4 to 1 over the Waymos, but of course they're a partner.
00:12And we're going to talk about that in just a minute.
00:14But first, I want to start with some news that came out of Uber earlier this week.
00:18Thank you, Natalie Leung, for breaking that story about some changes, upper management.
00:23You promoted Andrew McDonald to chief operating officer.
00:26You were quick to say you're not going anywhere anytime soon.
00:32You also said in your note something that was a little enigmatic to those of us on the outside,
00:39that with Max stepping up, I intend to put focus on our six strategic shifts,
00:44spending more time with our tech teams.
00:46Tell us about what are the six strategic shifts,
00:50and why do you need to spend more time with the tech teams?
00:53Well, I think if I talked about all six, we'd be here the whole time.
00:57But for example, one that we talk about for us is becoming much more of a company
01:04in terms of the lifetime relationship with our customers.
01:07And one of the reasons why, actually, I wanted to bring Mac in as president and COO.
01:12He's been at Uber longer than I have for 13 years.
01:16He's an incredible veteran, incredible operator,
01:20is that the power we see in the Uber platform continues to increase.
01:26Now, what I mean by that is we have a relationship with you on the ride side.
01:29A lot of you using Uber to come here.
01:32Thank you very much.
01:33And then our Uber Eats business is almost as large as our Uber Rides business
01:37and growing very, very quickly and accelerating, if anything.
01:41And looking at a customer right now, the way the business was built,
01:47we essentially had a mobility business that Mac ran,
01:51a delivery business that Pierre Dimitri ran, did a terrific job.
01:55And it was almost like two businesses interacting with you as a customer.
01:59And now the focus for us is really moving to lifetime interaction with a customer,
02:05looking at you not just as an Uber customer, Uber Eats customer,
02:08but overall as an Uber customer, and how do we continue to build that relationship?
02:12For example, the membership program that we've got, Uber One,
02:16gives you no delivery fees and discounts on rides.
02:20We've got 30 million members, and people who use multiple products on Uber
02:25tend to transact with us much more, tend to have much more satisfaction with the product.
02:32And that's one of the reasons I wanted to get an experienced operating executive
02:37to really focus on the overall relationship with the customer rather than, you know, separate P&Ls.
02:43I think you said one in five of your customers are using both mobility and delivery.
02:48It's about now it's closer to a third now, so it's increasing steadily.
02:53So it's moving in the right direction, right?
02:55What do you do to get that number higher, and where do you want it to be in, say, three years?
03:01Well, listen, we want to get to 50%, and once we get to 50%, I want to go higher than that.
03:07And it's about the little interactions every day.
03:10For example, when I got a ride to the office the other day,
03:15and along the way I was offered a coffee from Phil's to be ready for me along the way to the office, right?
03:24And so it's those little interactions that are a value add to the consumer.
03:28It's like, great, of course I want my morning coffee, and if it can be ready for me right on the way to work, that's awesome.
03:35That is also a way to kind of get me to use Uber Eats, for example, if I didn't use it.
03:39Now I use Eats all the time.
03:41But it's these little interactions powered by AI, powered by personalization,
03:45understanding the context of where you're going, and there's a coffee shop close by to give you that opportunity.
03:50It's those experiences that we have to build more and more, which is one of the reasons now I'm going to work more with the tech teams,
03:55because, you know, they're the ones building these experiences.
03:59I want to spend a little bit of time talking about your relationship with autonomous vehicles.
04:03It's been a, it's up and down for Uber over the years, even preceding your tenure.
04:10You have stakes in a lot of AV companies.
04:14You talked recently about wanting to monetize some of those.
04:17Can you tell us a little bit, or your stakes, your equity stakes generally, you didn't specify AVs.
04:23But I am curious, have you identified where you want to focus, where, what do you want to free the cash up?
04:29Is it about developing deeper relationships with a select number of AV partners?
04:35What's the strategy?
04:36So we want to essentially support the AV ecosystem and continue to help that ecosystem develop,
04:45and then AVs penetrate into the marketplace.
04:48AV, we think, represents a safer way of transportation.
04:51Ultimately, we think it will expand the marketplace as it makes kind of safe transportation in cities available to everybody.
04:59So we're big fans of AV.
05:00And generally, we're working with multiple partners in the ecosystem.
05:04Waymo, for example, in Austin and Atlanta coming up.
05:08Wave, Avri, there are probably 18 partnerships that we have in the AV ecosystem.
05:13And we want to help these players develop by investing in them in some cases,
05:19but really by working with them to bring their product to market.
05:23These are technologies that are unbelievably promising, but they've taken billions of dollars to develop in, you know, 10-plus years.
05:31And it's one of those overnight successes that's kind of taken 20 years of development, but it's finally ready to hit market.
05:39And we want to help the ecosystem get there.
05:43Separately, we have large stakes in many companies.
05:46Yes.
05:46We have large stakes in many companies, you know, well over $5 billion that we think we can take some of those stakes and essentially recycle them into additional investments in the AV ecosystem.
05:57So over a period of time, we'll get it right.
06:00We've got a ton of free cash flow of the company.
06:02So one way or the other, you know, the goal is to build up the AV ecosystem around our network.
06:07Build up the AV ecosystem.
06:09You guys have the UI, for example, that works really well.
06:12You have that customer relationship that maybe some of them don't.
06:15So is the idea you really want to kind of concentrate on a fewer number, or is it just keep the broad number of AV partners?
06:26I mean, obviously, we want to make sure that we partner with the right players, and I'd say safety is the most important area.
06:32We want to make sure that they pass the flying cutlers through our safety case, which is actually pretty tough.
06:36But to the extent that the tech is there, the team is there, safety is part of the culture.
06:42We want to work with them.
06:43So right now, there are a number of promising partners, and you'll probably see the number of partners increase for us.
06:52Okay.
06:52You mentioned your relationship with Waymo.
06:56We had Sundar last night.
06:58Yeah.
06:58Asked him about when he's going to be able to take a Waymo from Mountain View all the way up to San Francisco.
07:04We're not quite there yet, but there are genuine concerns about the ways that you are both a partner and a competitor to Waymo.
07:14What is the conversation like internally and with your board over how you continue to deepen that, what is a valuable relationship, as far as I can tell,
07:25but also keep it from becoming something that starts to undermine your business?
07:30Well, the relationship with Waymo, I think the press and, to some extent, investors love to create drama because what the hell.
07:38But, you know, the type of relationship that we have with Waymo is very similar, for example, to the type of relationship we'll have with the Starbucks coffee.
07:47They're a great partner with Uber Eats.
07:50And at the same time, Starbucks wants to have its own app and wants to have interactions directly with the customer, and it isn't an either-or, it's an and.
07:59So, we offer Starbucks on Eats, and they compete with us in some ways with a Starbucks app and with their loyalty program, and that's fine.
08:08That's the way business goes.
08:09Same thing with Domino's.
08:10Domino's, three years ago, wasn't going to work with the platforms, now works with the platforms.
08:14And in the same way, in San Francisco, yes, we compete with Waymo to get rides here, but in Austin, Atlanta, we absolutely work with them.
08:26And what we're seeing in Austin is, frankly, the launch is going better than we expected.
08:31Number one is safety, and obviously, Waymo's, you know, the best at it.
08:34And number two is customer love, and our customers are loving kind of the delight and surprise of getting a Waymo, and they're coming back.
08:43So, I do think that this is going to be, it's not an either-or, we're going to be working together.
08:48Waymo is developing its own channels, and at the same time, we can work together very constructively.
08:53As we head toward an increasingly AV future, I know you've been asked about this before, but what are some of the new ways that you're seeking to overcome that challenge of reassuring drivers, who are still an incredibly important part of your ecosystem, that you have their backs?
09:10But we also love these Waymo's that have no driver in them.
09:14Very much so.
09:14So, one is growth helps a lot, right?
09:17So, our business is growing almost 20% a year, and on average, we're going to need more drivers on the platform for the next couple of years, and I see that continuing for some period of time.
09:29So, I think drivers generally on our platform are going to be more busy, are going to have more to do, and the number of drivers on our platform and couriers on our platform is going to grow.
09:37That's one.
09:38The second, though, is we're putting significant efforts in creating more work and earnings opportunities for drivers and couriers, right?
09:47We started with driving, we went to delivery, now you can actually shop, and there's a subsegment of couriers, et cetera, who will love their local Walmart, for example, or Albertsons, and shop in those stores.
10:03Or for Walmart, we deliver those packages.
10:07And now we're actually going further where we're developing now what we call Uber AI solutions, where drivers are actually now labeling maps, translating language, looking at AI answers, and grading AI answers.
10:24So, you know, one way to look at Uber is that we are essentially a transportation platform, we'll help you go anywhere, get anything.
10:34Another way to look at Uber is that we are the largest on-demand work platform on Earth.
10:40And the first use case for us is actually transportation, and now we're expanding use cases into other use cases, and knowledge work is one of them.
10:50So I think as long as we grow, as long as we are honest with our drivers and couriers in terms of their expectations, and now expand the number of opportunities to them, I think we'll be more than fine.
11:02So you're actually getting your drivers, you're encouraging your drivers to help the AI and make it smarter, the AI that's going to ultimately put them out of the job.
11:11Yeah, it's going to be a part of our life going forward, and it's good work, and, you know, certainly our drivers are qualified to do it.
11:18How much of their time do you find they're spending doing that?
11:23I assume this is like in the course of a day's drive.
11:26It's very small compared to the overall workload, right?
11:31We're doing over 33 million trips a day now in terms of our mainline segments, but Uber AI Solutions is a very, very promising growth segment for us.
11:42And I think in 5, 10 years, it will be a significant part of the overall opportunities that we're giving to our drivers and couriers.
11:50I want to talk about Bill Ackman.
11:52Sure.
11:53His relationship with Uber, it's nice to have an activist who's friendly, as far as I can tell.
12:01Tell us about the ways that you are interacting with Bill and how he is encouraging Uber to be better.
12:09Yeah, so Bill is one of the legendary investors out there.
12:13And so I was very happy.
12:16Like, I'm a fan of his kind of investing fundamentals, long term, making big bets.
12:23So I've always admired Bill.
12:24So when we found out that he was a shareholder, it was like, right on.
12:27And the cool thing about Bill as a shareholder is he uses the product.
12:32He is intensely interested in the product.
12:35And he's talking to his drivers.
12:37So he gives me a lot of feedback.
12:39And actually, a couple of features, you know, for example, he was leaving dinner one night and he wanted to order Ubers for his kids and his parents.
12:47And for some technical reasons, we couldn't do that at the time.
12:51And we built that feature based on that idea.
12:54And it's proven to be a really cool feature.
12:55So you want the kind of long-term investor that Bill is.
13:00But what's cool about it is that he's actually, you know, he's brilliant, but he uses a product and he uses it in a constructive way.
13:07And we've got a great relationship.
13:09Speaking of relationships with folks on the East Coast, you know, Silicon Valley has this really interesting relationship with the Trump administration right now.
13:22This need to engage, but also recognizing that there are policies that the Trump administration, like any administration, is pursuing that may not work so well for the tech industry.
13:38No taxes on tips, something that's part of the legislation, something that you would say you support.
13:44Can you talk about kind of the dialogue that you have with the president and what kind of feedback are you giving him on that?
13:55What kind of feedback are you giving him on the tax bill more generally?
13:59Yeah.
13:59So we one is no taxes on tips is we think a terrific piece of legislation.
14:06It will, if passed, save our drivers and couriers hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that they would have otherwise paid.
14:14So we are big supporters of that.
14:15Have you put a specific number on that over a time period?
14:19It's in the hundreds of millions.
14:20I don't know the specifics, but it's significant.
14:22And we think it's appropriately targeted, you know, to a segment of the population that we all want to succeed.
14:32And I've been very supportive of that directly with the president and our folks with the staff.
14:38And I see generally we engage with every administration out there, both in on a federal level and on a state level.
14:45We certainly engage with the Trump administration.
14:49And what I like in terms of what I'm seeing is that it is a pro-growth, pro-business in terms of kind of common business interest administration.
15:00And we'll continue to engage with them constructively going forward.
15:02There's a lot of rhetoric around immigration and a lot of policies around immigration that have a mixed effect.
15:11What's your message to the Trump administration when it comes to limitations on immigration?
15:18You rely on immigrants for both drivers, for your engineers, across the board.
15:24Yeah.
15:24So I think I'm an immigrant, you know, I came here when I was nine years old.
15:28So I am absolutely pro-immigration generally for the U.S.
15:33But I think there's no question that we should secure our borders.
15:36And so I think from that standpoint, we're very supportive.
15:40Our drivers and couriers have been quite supportive of President Trump as well for similar reasons.
15:48And I think with immigration, you know, there is a dialogue for us to be had, which is what is the right level of immigration in this country, how, you know, we select, how we qualify, et cetera.
15:59That I'm hoping that we get to have that dialogue as a country.
16:03And I think that dialogue suffers from kind of the two sides shooting at each other.
16:07But I think that if we can just come together and recognize that this is a largely immigrant nation and immigration done right can benefit society done wrong, it can go the other way.
16:20So let's just focus on doing it right.
16:22Well, for example, and it's not necessarily that we're building a wall on the northern border.
16:28But you on your earnings call talked about the ways that some of this sort of unwillingness to come to the United States because of some of its political stances toward foreign countries starting to affect your business.
16:43We've definitely seen Canadian immigration into or travel to the U.S. come down from historical levels.
16:53The good news for Uber is that we're a global company.
16:57So to the extent that Canadians are traveling to Europe, they use Uber in Canada and they'll be able to use Uber in Europe as well.
17:03So for us, the effect on the business is changing business mix.
17:07But as long as people travel and the global economies are doing well, which they are, we're going to interact with consumers one way or the other.
17:16Have you seen any shifts since you last weighed in on this topic?
17:20The biggest one is a Canadian shift and that that has there was a, I'd say, initial significant effect.
17:28And we're seeing some of that continue, not all of it continue.
17:31You talked about the consumer sentiment holding up.
17:35What have you seen since you last talked to the public about that?
17:39Well, I'm not going to update.
17:41Obviously, we're in the middle of a quarter.
17:45But generally, we have seen for the past two years, and that has continued until the last quarter, the consumer remains strong.
17:53We're not seeing any effects in terms of, you know, lack of confidence, et cetera.
17:58We look to see if consumers are trading down, for example, the kind of restaurants that they're eating at or are reducing the size of, let's say, their shopping baskets.
18:08We don't see any signal whatsoever.
18:10The U.S. consumer and generally the global consumer has remained resilient.
18:16And obviously, I'm hoping that continues.
18:18I want to take just a couple of seconds before I get kicked off.
18:21You get and I get kicked off.
18:22I get kicked off, I think.
18:23You're staying.
18:25I understand that you are considering Stablecoin as a vehicle for Uber.
18:33Talk about where your considerations are and how that might benefit your business.
18:37Yeah, we're still in the study phase, I'd say.
18:39But I think Stablecoin is one of the, for me, more interesting instantiations of crypto that has a practical benefit other than crypto as a store of value.
18:49You know, obviously, you can have your opinions on Bitcoin, but it's a proven commodity.
18:54And, you know, people have different opinions on where it's going.
18:57But I do think that Stablecoin is quite promising, especially for global companies that are moving money around globally to create a mechanism for us to essentially reduce costs in terms of moving money internationally.
19:11So that's super interesting to us, and we're definitely going to take a look.
Recommended
9:42
|
Up next
1:58
1:57
4:37
2:18
6:50
6:23
19:04
5:51
19:31
2:27
3:32
2:10
17:17
4:54
5:43
4:31
14:52
0:28
2:38
2:07
19:46
11:44
3:58
19:43
Be the first to comment