Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders for Uber Technologies, Inc. I'd now like to turn it over to Ron Sugar, Independent Chairperson of Uber's Board of Directors.

Thank you, operator. The meeting will now come to order. I am Ron Sugar, Independent Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Uber Technologies, Inc. I will be presiding as Chair of this meeting; and Tony West, our Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, will serve as Secretary of the meeting. Along with my fellow directors and executive officers of the company, I would like to welcome you to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. We appreciate your attendance, your interest and your support of Uber. This Annual Meeting of Stockholders is held pursuant to the bylaws of the company and written notice to all stockholders. I'll remind all stockholders to kindly observe the rules of conduct for this meeting which are posted on the virtual meeting site and some of which I will highlight. The only business matters to be conducted at the annual meeting are the matters set forth in the Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders and 2021 Proxy Statement dated March 29, 2021. Only our stockholders of record as of the record date March 15, 2021, are permitted to vote. We have allotted 30 minutes for Q&A to allow us to answer questions from as many stockholders as possible. We've already received more than 50 questions, and we'll go through them in the order received. If we can get to live questions during the meeting, we will limit each stockholder to 1 question with 2 minutes for each question. We do not intend to address any questions that are, among other things, irrelevant to the business of the company or to the business of the annual meeting, derogatory or otherwise in bad taste, or not otherwise suitable for the conduct of the annual meeting. Shareholders who have questions that are more appropriate for customer service will be routed to customer service agents. Subjects to the rules described above, we will host a representative set of questions that we were unable to get to on our Investor Relations website following the meeting. Recording of the annual meeting is strictly prohibited. Now I would like to introduce the Directors of Uber who are in attendance today. We welcome Dara Khosrowshahi, who also serves as our Chief Executive Officer; Revathi Advaithi; Ursula Burns; Bob Eckert; Mandy Ginsberg; Wan Ling Martello; Yasir Al-Rumayyan; John Thain; David Trujillo; and Alexander Wynaendts. Also attending this meeting are representatives of our PwC, independent registered public accounting firm auditors. Now I will turn it over to Tony for the formal portion of today's meeting.

Thanks, Ron. I'm Tony West, the company's Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. We're conducting this meeting in accordance with our bylaws and the rules of conduct, which are posted on the virtual meeting site. We've received an affidavit of mailing from Broadridge Financial Solutions certifying as to the giving of notice of this meeting and the sending to stockholders of record as of March 15, 2021, the notice of Internet availability of proxy material, which Broadridge commenced distributing to stockholders on March 29, 2021. In addition, The Board of Directors has appointed Ms. Kathy Weeden to serve as the independent inspector of the election for this meeting. Her oath of office is with the Secretary of the meeting and will be included with the minutes of this meeting. I've also have a copy of the 2020 Annual Report, which includes financial statements certified by PwC. A copy of this annual report was sent or made available to each stockholder entitled to vote at this meeting, and an electronic copy of the annual report is available on the website used to access this meeting. The notice of meeting and the affidavit of mailing, together with the attachments thereto and the 2020 Annual Report will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. A list of the holders of record of common stock of the company as of the close of business on March 15, 2021, is available for inspection during this meeting by any stockholder on the webcast page used to access this meeting. A copy of the list of stockholders will be filed with the records of this company. On March 15, 2021, the record date for this annual meeting, there were outstanding and entitled to vote a total of 1,860,906,043 shares of common stock. I've been informed by the Inspector of Election that there are 1,497,083,338 shares of stock represented by proxy or approximately 80% of all the shares entitled to vote at this meeting. The shares so represented exceed 50% of the total shares entitled to vote at this meeting, and thus constitute a quorum present to conduct our meeting today. The polls for voting on all matters are now open. All Uber stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting have the ability to do so. If you're a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so via the website used to access this meeting. Please remember that if you've already voted by proxy, it's not necessary to vote again. After voting has been completed on all matters on the agenda, we will close the polls and the Inspector of Election will provide her preliminary report. We'll move now to a review of the proposals. The first proposal to come before the meeting is the election of directors. At this meeting, we are seeking to elect the 11 directors listed in the proxy statement for a 1-year term expiring at the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Information about the nominees is contained in the proxy statement. Since no other nominations were received prior to the deadline established by the company's bylaws, no additional nominations may be made at this meeting, and I declare the nominations to be closed. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any response. Seeing none, we'll move to the next proposal. Proposal 2 asks stockholders to approve an advisory resolution on the fiscal year 2020 compensation of the named executive officers, all as described in our proxy statement. This proposal is advisory. Although nonbinding, the vote will provide information to our Compensation Committee and our Board of Directors regarding investor sentiment about our executive compensation philosophy, policies and practices, which our Compensation Committee and our Board of Directors will be able to consider when making future executive compensation decisions. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any response. Seeing none, we'll move to the next proposal. The next matter to come before the meeting is the ratification of the appointment of PwC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. The Board of Directors recommends the ratification of the appointment of PwC to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm and to audit the company's financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any response. Seeing none, we'll move on now. The next matter to come before the meeting is a proposal to remove supermajority voting requirements from the company's certificate of incorporation and bylaws as described in our proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommends a vote for this proposal. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any response. Seeing none, we'll move on. The fifth and final proposal is the stockholder proposal submitted by the Teamsters regarding an annual report to be prepared by the company on lobbying activities. Mr. Ron du Gant will be speaking on behalf of the Teamsters today. Out of respect for the other stockholders in attendance and to allow for ample time for Q&A, we ask that you please limit your comments to a period of 2 minutes or less. Operator, please open the line for Mr. Gant.

Hello, everyone. My name is Ron Du Gant. I'm an Uber driver, a member of Gig Workers Rising, and I'm proud to present Proposal 5 on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The proposal calls for transparent and accessible disclosure of Uber Technologies lobbying expenditures. Uber has spent tens of millions of dollars in the U.S. lobbying to protect business practices that are unsustainable in a business model that's unprofitable. Without adequate disclosures visitors are blind to the untold subs that Uber funnels to other groups declining state, local and grassroots lobbying efforts. If stakeholders continue to be kept in the dark as to how and where their money is spent, it can lead to unforeseen legal, reputational and financial risks. For example, investigative reporting exposed Uber as a funder of the Republican Attorney General's Association, who, in turn, funded groups that organize the interaction at the U.S. Capital. What we don't know can hurt us. Here in California, Uber spent tens of millions of dollars to exempt themselves from a law that will require them to provide us drivers with basic protection afforded to other workers. Drivers will personally take on physical and financial risk every day. In that campaign, Uber targeted drivers and customers through its app with messaging that was broadly seen as deceptive and to many drivers felt like bullying. I'm a full-time driver and has been driving for Uber in the Bay Area for nearly 3 years. For a brief moment, this first quarter, Uber experienced record bookings, higher prices for rides, which saw full-time drivers like me finally making decent pay. However, soon after, Uber took away that fair multiplier tool, effectively pulling the rug from under us economically and turning us into low-wage employees. We feel Uber's focused on political lobbying is a costly distracting -- distraction from investing in their drivers, who are the biggest marketing tool with most effective political advocates and their main revenue generators. I urge shareholders to vote for Proposal 5. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gant. For reasons outlined further in our proxy statement, our Board of Directors has recommended a vote against this stockholder proposal. The polls are about to close. So if you've not yet voted, please do so. I will pause for 3 minutes now to allow votes to be cast. [Voting]

Okay. Since everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed. Inspector of Election has delivered her preliminary report, and I will now announce the preliminary results. Mr. Chairman, based on the Inspector of Election's preliminary report, the following are the meeting results, including the preliminary vote counts. Each of the 11 nominees for director has been duly elected as a director of the company to serve for a 1-year term that will expire in 2022 with average approval of more than 98% of votes cast. The resolution on an advisory basis for the compensation of our named executive officers for fiscal year 2020 has been approved by 94% of votes cast. The ratification of the appointment of PwC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm has been approved with an approval of 99% of votes cast. The proposal to remove supermajority voting requirements from the company's certificate of incorporation and bylaws has been approved with an approval of 99% of votes cast, representing over 69% of the company's total shares outstanding. And the stockholder proposal for the company to prepare an annual report on lobbying activities has not passed, receiving approval from 30% of votes cast. We will file a final report of the Inspector of Election with the records of this meeting. We expect the results of the voting -- we expect to report the results of the voting on a Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within 4 business days of this meeting. Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Tony. That concludes the formal portion of this meeting, and this meeting is now adjourned. I will now turn it over to our CEO, Dara, to provide a business presentation followed by our Q&A session. Dara?

Thank you very much, Ron. I'm Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's Chief Executive Officer. And before I go for a pause for a moment here to let everyone review the disclaimers in regards to this presentation. Okay. So first of all, I would love to start by thanking you for joining us today and for supporting our company and our mission. Let me first start by recapping Uber's actions in 2020 that ensures that we not only weather the severe impacts of the pandemic but have positioned us to emerge much stronger and ready to become the mobility and delivery platform for choice for consumers, drivers, couriers and merchants. 2020 was a year like no other. We entered the year looking forward to turning EBITDA profitable by Q4 of 2020. And our mobility business was rapidly expanding profitably on an EBITDA basis. Of course, COVID brought the world to standstill in March. And Uber, which was a company known for moving people around cities, was severely impacted as one would expect. Our share price bottomed at $15 per share in March 2020, and our mobility gross bookings declined over 80% year-on-year in April. With that backdrop, I'm proud of the execution our team demonstrated over the past year. We moved very quickly to take tough actions that rightsized our cost structure, while also ensuring that we continue to make growth investments [indiscernible] In total, in 2020, we executed 17 transactions during the year that expanded our gross bookings run rate by over $6 billion and reduced our fixed costs by over $1 billion. We did all of this while ensuring that we executed to capture the growth opportunity in delivery. Our delivery business recently crossed a $50 billion run rate, and it's now bigger than Mobility was pre-COVID becoming the largest food delivery business globally as China. Now we're a local on-the-ground business, and it's really important for us to do the right thing for the communities that we serve. Our first priority was to ensure that earners on our platform are safe. And we work hard to procure PPE and implement the policies and procedures to make the platform safe for everyone. We also donated millions of free rides and meals to the first responders, as well as rise to improve vaccine access to make sure transportation is not varied. Looking ahead, while cases running too high in many parts of the world, in many others, we can now clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel. As vaccination rates rise, infections fall and restrictions lift, people quickly breathe a sigh of relief and they start moving again. There's pent-up demand to see family and friends. Offices, restaurants and bars are reopening. And even airports are seeing improved traffic, as you can see by some of the TSA statistics. The actions we took last year and our team's hard work since then have uniquely well positioned -- have us uniquely well positioned to harness the recovery. Uber has already begun to fire on both cylinders again. On a consolidated basis, we've returned to growth, with Q1 our best quarter ever in terms of gross bookings. April, our best month ever in gross bookings as well. And even as we invested for growth, our rigorous cost management drove an adjusted EBITDA improvement of $253 million year-on-year and $95 million year-on-year in the first quarter. We continue to have a strong balance sheet with significant liquidity and valuable investments in several leading mobility, delivery and autonomous assets. The mobility recovery started to pick up as a margin improved further in April. With strong vaccination rates in several markets, including the U.S., we're optimistic that this trend should accelerate going forward. And in April, Mobility gross bookings were at a $31 billion annualized run rate, up 300% year-on-year and only 35% below April 2019 levels. At the same time, we're seeing encouraging signs of stickiness in our delivery business even as cities reopen. For example, in Sydney, where dining fully reopened over 2 months ago, delivery trends remain healthy even as mobility has fully recovered and returned to growth versus 2019. In fact, delivery in Sydney continues to be bigger than business -- continues to be a bigger business than mobility for Uber. Similarly, as New York City has partially reopened dining and other services, delivery demand has continued to expand. In general, as cities open back up, we are free to be retaining our active delivery consumers and their largest faster sizes even if the frequency of ordering moderates somewhat. As our business returns to growth, we've got a strong balance sheet with approximately $5.7 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. And we have access to over $2 billion from our revolver, providing us with plenty of liquidity to manage through the recovery ahead. In addition to our significant cash balance, we have several valuable minority investments that were recorded on our balance sheet and nearly $13 billion in value as of the end of Q1. Some of these companies have taken steps to be comfortable [indiscernible] including Grab and Joby. And there are press reports suggesting that others may follow in the near future. While some of these investments are strategic and will remain involved for the foreseeable future, others are likely to be significant sources of liquidity. We'll be proactive in maximizing the value from these investments for Uber and, more importantly, for our shareholders. To sum up, I am as excited as ever about the opportunity we have for Uber. Our delivery business continues to grow faster than anyone could have predicted, and our mobility business is bouncing back in many markets around the world. And because of the actions we took this past year, we're returning to growth and even stronger, more focused, and ultimately, with a more profitable foundation. So thank you again for joining. And now, Tony, why don't we get going to Q&A.

Thanks, Dara. So I now invite you to ask any questions you may have regarding the company and our business. We've allotted 30 minutes for questions. Please follow instructions that were provided on the virtual meeting screen to submit your questions. We'll attempt to answer as many questions as time allows. And we'll answer questions in the order received, given that we received over 50 questions prior to the start of this meeting. Given that fact, we may be unable to answer questions that are submitted live due to our time constraints. And as a reminder, if we're unable to answer any questions pertinent to the meeting due to time constraints, we will post answers to a representative set of questions after this meeting on our Investor Relations page at investor.uber.com. As noted in the rules of conduct, only appropriate questions will be addressed. And with that, we'll turn to our first questions submitted by stockholders prior to the meeting. The first question is from Peter Juno. Uber Eats proves that there are other segments of the market, Uber can be successful in. What can we expect from Uber in the next 20 years or so? And how do you intend to compete if Tesla decided to get in the TAS, T-A-S, business?

So thank you so much, Peter, for your question. It's difficult to predict where we're going 20 years from now. But we have shifted very quickly from being early mobility business to being a mobility and delivery business. And really, our long-term goal and vision is for Uber to be the platform of choice for customers to go anywhere and to get anything delivered. And in terms of going, we have extended our services just from rideshare now to 3-wheelers and 2-wheelers, to taxi, to mass transit to bikes and scooters as well. We want to be a fulsome mobility platform. Anywhere you want to get to from point A to B in your city or your suburb, Uber is going to be there for you, both in terms of services that are provided by ourselves but also making sure that we integrate third-party services, mobility services, all in a delightful and seamless fashion. And as it relates to delivery, food was the first entree into delivery, and we have been extraordinarily successful with Uber Eats. There's a ton of growth ahead of us, but we have used the Uber East platform to essentially start to expand in all things delivery. So you see that with our getting into grocery convenience, grocery with our Cornershop acquisition. We are -- we now have pharmacy on the platform as well. We announced a transaction, which we hope to close with Drizly as it relates to alcohol delivery as well. So anything we call kind of the 2Fs as fast and frequent we want to be in. And just as we have expanded from relatively narrow definition of rideshare to fulsome mobility, we are expanding from food to essentially all delivery in local commerce with a particular focus on fast and frequent. But ultimately, going to promote and support all of local commerce, whether it's your neighborhood store, we think we can be a delivery partner for them with our delivery as a service model. So lots of opportunity and lots of extensions available for us. In terms of Tesla and the TAS business, listen, we think that the transportation as a service market is a very, very large market. It's a multitrillion dollar TAM business. I'm assuming that you are talking about Tesla entering through Autonomous, we have a very strong partnership with Aurora Innovation, we believe, is one of the top leaders in this area and is developing, we think, the best of autonomous technology out there. And we will look to bring Aurora's technology into the market. And again, we think that this autonomous market is going to be a very significant market. Our unique benefit is that we will run a hybrid network. Depending on the route, the origination and the destination, if it makes sense for a driver to pick you up or drop you off, we'll send a driver. If it makes sense for a robot driver to do so, we will send a robot driver. We think this is some ways down the line. But having a network that has both drivers and autonomous driving with multiple partners, we think, is a real advantage and is going to allow us to play our part in the upcoming TAS revolution.

Thanks, Peter. Next -- the next question is from Vincenzo Spinelli. It's a question on a topic we received a number of similar questions on and so we grouped them into this. I know that the stock had a bit of a bumpy start, but I was thinking that now that the stock is increasing in value, that perhaps there may be possible talk of a possible stock split in the future. A stock split would keep the price per share affordable for new investors. It would also reward the existing investors with additional shares. I'd like to know what the Board's position is on this issue as well as the possibility of a dividend either in the form of additional shares or in cash payments. I would welcome either scenario. I feel like investors like myself, who stuck with the company through the difficult start should be rewarded in some way. Cashing in my shares doesn't seem to be the right move because although, yes, I would receive my increased value, the company would lose an investor. I feel that the stock split and dividend route would help to foster a more long-term relationship between the company and its investors.

Well, first of all, Vincenzo, thank you for sticking with us and being a shareholder. We always consider any opportunity to improve shareholder returns and in terms of broadening the ownership base of our company. Specifically talking about a stock split, we haven't really considered that option yet, but we certainly could pursue it in the future if it makes sense. Usually, companies look at splits if their stock, if they think they want to increase the liquidity of their stock. Right now our stock is highly liquid. It's got more than 15 million shares traded every day. I also do want to remind you that a stock split doesn't fundamentally change anything in terms of total value, right? When you split a stock, you've double the number of shares, theoretically, the -- your stock price will go down a half. Some view it as a signaling mechanism, but we're not really in the signaling business. We're in the fundamental business. So we will look at it, but it's not something that I would anticipate in the immediate future or the next couple of quarters. As it relates to dividends, dividends usually associated with companies that have significant cash flow. And I think as you know, we are -- this year is really our drive to profitability on an EBITDA basis. There's lots and lots of growth ahead of us. So we think that, one, we want the capital cushion for safety. And two, we think that there are plenty of opportunities ahead of us for outsized growth over the next couple of years. So at this point, It doesn't make sense to be a dividend-paying company. Once the company is free cash flow positive, is more mature, again, along the themes of looking to maximize shareholder value is something that we would -- that we would look at. But again, not in the near future.

Vincenzo, thanks for the question. The next question is from Treverton Beckford. My question is what are you guys doing to help drivers, most of whom are investors, get the vaccine?

Yes, Treverton, that's a great question. First of all, we are committed to removing barriers for riders and drivers to get vaccinated. In 2020, we advocated for priority vaccine access for earners in line with other essential workers, and we wrote to all the U.S. governors and the CDC. We also produce vaccine guides to help drivers and delivery people understand where and how to get their shots. And we're using our platform now and partnerships to help our drivers and delivery people book vaccine appointments. And one pretty cool use case of that is our integrating our tech with Walgreens to get our earners very easy access and identification for vaccine scheduling. So it's -- we are absolutely doing our parts to get the population vaccinated, in particular, our drivers and earners. We think it's in everyone's interest.

Thanks, Treverton. Next question is another one in which we received multiple questions on a similar topic, from shareholders, Jayaraman and Lila Holzman. What is your plan to promote fuel-efficient and EV vehicles within the fleet? How will Uber meet its net zero emissions target? Will it throw its lobbying power behind policy to adopt EVs?

Yes. So it's a great and timely question. Uber has committed to building a zero in emission mobility platform by 2040 with 100% of our eyes taking place in zero emission vehicles or public transit or with micro mobility, all of which are essentially zero emission. We're also on track to achieve net zero emissions from corporate operations here by 2030. To help us get there, we've really put our money behind as we committed to $800 million in resources to help hundreds of thousands of drivers transition to electric vehicles. So there's 3 ways of accessing resources for drivers. First, additional earnings. Drivers in the U.S. and Canada who drive electric or hybrid will earn extra for each and every trip they take. This will help them incentivize them to move from gasoline powered cars to electric and/or hybrid costs. Second, we're looking to make it cheaper and easier to make that transition. And we have gone out and we are sourcing a global network of product sector partnerships to support electrification by providing exclusive savings for drivers and couriers on EVs. And just as importantly, actually, for charging. Charging infrastructure is going to be incredibly important and making sure that our drivers have access to easy. And often, fast charge solutions in urban areas is a very, very big part of our partnership strategy going forward. And then really, we're also looking at market-based solutions because we need market-based solutions to scale. So we are building these solutions into our platform, whereby drivers can gain access to additional incentives to go electric for every mile that they are carrying dryers. As to your question on the advocacy part, we've already started advocating for policies to promote electrification through direct engagement and with policy makers in Washington, Brussels and those overseeing key local markets. We think this is a really, really important and fundamental transportation that our transportation ecosystem should go through, and we want to be a leader there.

Thanks for the question. The next one is from David Patito. What has management done to protect drivers from unruly and threatening passengers? What has management done to ensure that passengers identify an Uber car so that they can be assured before getting into the vehicle that the driver is indeed their assigned driver.

Yes. Very good question. So what we call an internal priority of standing for safety has been a top priority for us and a real rallying for the company really since I took over as CEO. And we are, as part of standing for safety, we have committed to innovating around robust tools that really put safety at the hearts of our products and platforms. Safety can't be an afterthought. Safety has to integrated a first-class citizen and has to be an integrated part of your processes and your services and your products. So what are a couple of things that we've done to specifically answer your question? First of all, we've got rider rating thresholds, right? Drivers have long and expected to meet a minimum ratings threshold. And now riders too may lose access to Uber if they developed a significantly below average ratings. It's a 2-way system and the responsibility is both for drivers and riders as it relates to ratings. Second is a product that we innovate at Palma ride. It enables drivers, designated level 1s, to share their live location during or in between trips, which is a really import product. I use it, for example, for my daughter to know where she's going at any particular time. Third is rider verification. So riders set up a new account with an anonymous form of payment. Examples of that might be prepaid credit cards or gift cards. They will be required to upload an ID or driver's license for verification. We want to make sure that we understand who you are. And we have over and over that, that actually reduces incidents, which is the reason why we have enabled this feature. Fourth, a fourth feature is in-app emergency button. This connects drivers and riders directly to 911 with just a press of a button. In some cities, and we're looking to work to expand this more and more. Actually, your trip details and the location can be shared automatically with first responders so that you don't have to spend much time talking about where you are or trying to identify where you are. Those details are essentially shared automatically. On your second question, so 2017, we began improving messaging to riders and the public about ways to check their ride, really important that you double check. And then in 2019, we built on the initiative by sending push notifications and in-app reminders to riders before they started the trip, right? Make sure you look at the license number. Make sure you look at the make and model so that you are getting into the right car. We then went a step further, because we're always looking like how can we make something that human beings can mistake? How can we automate them and build it into our products? So we began offering [indiscernible] option to verify their ride with a 4-digit pin that they verbally provide to their driver before they enter the vehicle. So the driver has to enter the 4-digit pin in their app in order to start the ride. So it's a second layer of safety, and riders can elect for the pin to make sure that, again, you are entering the right car and you can be safe. We'll continue to look for innovations here. We want to be the safest transportation platform on earth, both for drivers and riders. And -- but I think we're off to a good start. And we have looked to innovate on safety and have been a leader really for the past couple of years. Thanks for the question.

Yes. Thanks, David. And the next question is from Theis Rice. How many Board members are actual repetitive users of Uber?

I can tell you that all of our Board members are actual repetitive users of both Uber and Uber Eats. I will admit to you that Uber Eats has been more popular during the pandemic. And we are looking very much forward to having our Board members start to ride on Uber as well as eat on Uber. I experienced it. Our Board members are sending these recommendations all the time, ideas on how to improve the service. So it's actually really cool running a company that is such a service that's so endemic. So our Board members are quite knowledgeable, and part of their knowledge comes from using the product.

The next one comes from Julie Heron. How much market share has Uber Eats lost to DoorDash since Dara became CEO?

Yes. So I became CEO about 3.5 years ago. And Uber Eats overall was at a run rate of a little under $600 million on a quarterly basis in gross bookings before I joined. The last quarter, we announced, we were at a $12.5 billion gross bookings quarter. So that's about a 21x growth or multiple, over about 3.5 years, which we believe is much higher than the marketplace. And I think, for us, for perspective, we are really looking at the global marketplace. So we built essentially the largest food delivery business outside of China. We have a #1 or #2 position in nearly every market that we operate in. And DoorDash was primarily a competitor. The U.S. is looking to expand internationally as well, but we will put up our international footprint against anyone. And I think the team there, credit goes to the Uber Eats team in that expansion. Now in the U.S., DoorDash has executed really well and has over a 50% category position in the U.S. food delivery category. And over the past couple of years, our category position has been relatively stable overall. But I will tell you that we're not satisfied with our category position or a relative category position as it relates to DoorDash. They're a very strong competitor. And we respect them, but we will look to improve our category position in the U.S. in the coming years.

Thanks, Julie. The next question is from Chris Nakutis. And I think we'll have Ron answer this one. Dara, if Dara does not achieve the market capitalization goals in his initial contract, will the Board commit to not awarding him his bonus, $120 billion market cap within 5 years of his appointment?

Thanks, Chris. I assume you're referring to Dara's new higher performance-based option award that we granted to be able to bring this outstanding CEO out of a different company where he was doing a great job. It vests upon valuation of $120 billion within a 7-year period to the grant date. I think the confusion might be that the vesting is 20% a year over the first 5 years of that 7 years. All that said, this is the award that was included in Dara's grant agreement. It's a contract. It was disclosed on our proxy statement. We intend to follow those terms in determining if and when his options vest, and we do not expect to make any exceptions.

And if I could add to that, Ron, I wouldn't want the Board or the comp committee to make exceptions. This is something that we committed to. It was a definition of what we think is good performance. And if I don't deserve vesting, I don't want vesting.

Thanks, Chris. The next question is from [ Mesador Azure ]. Mesador says that I feel cheated with my ability to vote. You're telling me if I should vote for or against instead of allowing me to decide for or against on my own, may I ask why this is a good practice for you and others to tell us who we should vote for.

Yes. I'd start, Mesador, with saying that this is a standard practice for all companies that I'm aware of. We provide transparency as it relates to our shareholder. Our proxy statement is intended to provide stockholders with detailed information on all the matters that are up for a vote, including on director nominations, executive comp and any stockholder proposals. And the information includes the recommendations of our Board, among other information, including opposing views such as the supporting statement for stockholder, for the stockholder proposal, which was just presented, and for which our Board recommended a vote against. We encourage all shareholders to review carefully the information provided in the proxy statement so that they can make an informed decision when they vote and essentially make their own decision when they vote. But I believe that our standards are appropriate. And I think our standards are matched by the vast majority of companies out there.

Mesador, thanks for the question. The next one comes from Ronel. Uber sold the air taxi technology. We suppose that's for something better. We would like to know what it is.

Yes. So we divested -- last year, we talked in the opening remarks about the incredibly difficult year that everyone went through. And as part of reprioritization and looking at our strategy, we decided we divested Uber Elevate as well as our ATG units in order to focus on our core business as well as to push our profitability goals. Context is also that our core business, namely the delivery business, just got much bigger than we ever expected it to. And that caused us to really say, hey, let's double down on this business because not only is it -- has it grown much faster than we expected to, but the addressable market on TAM and our ability to go into adjacent areas such as local commerce has improved. So while we no longer own those 2 businesses, Elevate and ATG, we remain very, very optimistic on the prospects of those -- of what those technologies can do going forward in the transportation space. And therefore, we've retained investments in and strategic relationships with both Joby and Aurora, who are the acquirers of those stakes. And so we expect to have a strategic relationship with Joby, and we very much are looking forward to Joby Air casting service being on Uber. And the same thing for Aurora. We want our Aurora driver, both on the Uber service and hopefully, building a relationship with our Uber freight business as well. So these are businesses that we think can -- they are in squarely in the transportation space, and we think can quite additive. And we think the combination of our businesses, ATG and Aurora and the combination of Elevate and Joby, have increased the chances of success for both of those companies.

Thanks, Ronel. The next question is from Hayden Kolbert. Dara, when you took over at Uber, it costs me $25 to get an Uber from my house to the airport. Now it costs $55. What happened? And given this, how do you justify staying in your job?

Yes. I think that's a great question. And we've talked about the return of mobility demand now that people are getting vaccinated, now that the world is opening up again. Our demand has, especially in the U.S., and I'm assuming you're from the U.S., has come back significantly faster than driver supply. We kind of talk about it. Demand is fast, which driver supply tends to move more slowly. The top 2 reasons why drivers have said they are a bit hesitant to return to the road. One is safety, vaccine safety as it relates to COVID. And the second, our earnings opportunity. We are now -- obviously, I think safety is being addressed more and more. You see it in the news, more and more people are getting vaccinated. We are reaching out to drivers to help them get vaccinated, to give them more information, to let them know that our safety standards as it relates to [indiscernible] we continue to uphold them even now. And we think the safety issue, which has been the #1 issue of keeping drivers from coming back is resolving itself. The second is earnings. And about a month ago or so, we announced a $250 million investment as it relates to getting drivers back on the road. We are leaning in as it relates to driver incentives, and driver earnings are historically high levels. Even if you care for wait time, drivers in most U.S. cities are earning more than $35 an hour. And the great news is we are seeing drivers come back to the platform. We are seeing driver supply hours increase. All of our metrics as it relates to our drivers are positive. And as drivers return to the platform, we think that the cost of rides, including rides to the airport, will begin to normalize more towards historical levels. So I don't know exactly where you live, whether it's going to get to $25. But if we do our job right and so far, the signs are positive, it's not going to cost you $55 indefinitely to get to the airpoREIT.

Thanks for the question, Hayden. The next one comes from Venkat Vagvala Are there any plans to spin out into the Goods Transportation business using self-driving freight vehicles?

Yes. Just as -- it's a good question. Just as we want as many vehicles on our rideshare platform and as many drivers on our rideshare platform making sure that they're safe, et cetera, we want the same for our freight platform. We are very aggressively expanding freight. We want trucking partners on. We want more truck drivers to come off the freight platform. And when autonomous technology is developed and when it is fully safe, we absolutely want autonomous trucks and autonomous drivers, so to speak, to be on the freight platform. The good news is that freight is actually the lead use case that Aurora Innovation, our partner, who we combined with ATG is looking at. The highway driving tends to be a bit of an easier problem to solve for autonomous driving than city driving. They're long hours. They're pretty predictable in-lane driving. Aurora Innovation has a -- what we think is an industry-leading LiDAR, especially for long distances, which in a year or 2, high-speed highway driving. So this is actually the first use case that Aurora is looking to commercialize. They have a number of alliances with leading trucking manufacturers out there. And our intent is absolutely to work with Aurora and the Aurora driver as it relates to Uber freight.

Thank you, Venkat. The next question comes from Steve Nelson. Have you considered having 2 Uber drivers for the option of taking someone home and have the other driver take the owner's car home. Many times, people take their own car out for dinner or drinks and would like to come -- would like to Uber home but don't want to leave their car. This would be incremental income for Uber while also cutting down on the UIs.

Yes. Steve, it's a really good question. We're not currently planning to build a service specifically for this opportunity. I would just encourage that if you're going out, you think you may have a couple of drinks that you take an Uber or even one of our competitors. But this is not about our business. This is about safety. And take an Uber, if you think you may have a few drinks, you can relax. And we think it's a very, very easy and convenient option, economic option. And most importantly, it's a safe option. So I would very much encourage you. I think you're going to have a couple of drinks, take an Uber there. You can take an Uber back. And rest assured that you and your loved ones and people on the road are going to be safe.

Thanks, Steve. The next question comes from Oscar Rivera. Uber now has 2 seemingly competing products, rewards and pass. How is the company working backwards from the customer to decide on its retention strategy?

Yes, Oscar. I guess I would view them as complementary products. Really Rewards and Pass are align to reward our loyalists. And rewards are exactly that. They are reward. You don't need to pay for them. It's a thank you from Uber, and you can use your rewards to take more rides. You can give them to charity, et cetera. There are many, many uses of Rewards, so to speak. You should know that we also have a driver reward program. We want to thank the top drivers on our platforms as well to make sure that we give back. The Pass product is really designed for people who are looking to maximize their dollar spent. And I think one of the unique benefits that we bring to Pass is that you can buy, for example, an Eats Pass and not only get excellent discounts as it relates to Eats delivery costs but also get discounts on mobility as well. So I think, think of Rewards as thank you. Think of Pass as a product for the power user. And we think they both have their place and we both -- we think that they are both essentially complementary products.

Oscar, thank you. Our last question comes from Peter Steinberg. Is Uber considering universal fingerprint screening of its drivers as part of the background check process? This is an issue that is coming up in our area, which is Boston, with some recent and high-profile cases of sexual assault and kidnapping with rideshare drivers. This practice would enhance rider safety, and I suspect may soon be mandated by law, perhaps being in front of this issue would be beneficial.

Yes. I think it's a great question. And any incident on the platform is one incident too many. I do want to make sure that people understand that every U.S. driver undergoes a thorough criminal history and motor vehicle record background check before their first trip. We conduct the checks as required under state and local laws that cover the ridesharing industry. And in addition, our processes exceed the legal requirements in many important ways. One example is that we're the first U.S. ride-sharing company to implement continuous driver screening technology. This technology monitors a number of data sources for any new criminal offenses and then notifies us so that we can take action to ensure that every driver continues to meet our standards and our high standards. Since we launched effect technology, more than [indiscernible] drivers with a serious criminal charge have been removed from the app. We don't believe that fingerprint-based background checks should be a requirement because the FDA and state databases that are used for these checks often have significant gaps. One, they produce incomplete records. And two, and just as importantly, they can lead to discriminatory outcomes for communities of color. And for these and other reasons over the past 7 years, over 100 cities, counties and states have enacted laws governing rideshare and chosen not to require rideshare drivers to undergo a fingerprint-based background check. We don't believe that the 2 are exclusive. We think that you can have safety and top-notch safety without having a fingerprint-based system, and that is absolutely the direction that we're going in.

Peter, thanks for the questions. Dara, thanks for the answer. Ron, I'll turn it back to you.

Well, thank you, Tony and Dara. I'd like to take this opportunity again to thank all stockholders who joined us today for participating. And again, thank you for your support of Uber. Have a great day.