Do you know if this revenue figure accounts for the “top line revenue problem” (inclusion of government charges, refunds and fare promotions in top line revenue) mentioned for the 2017Q4 numbers at the 13th Naked Capitalism article [0] on Uber?
Incidentally that article also casts doubt on whether recent slowing of cost growth is material to profitability. It doesn’t look to be fully updated through 2018Q1 though.
I can't comment on Uber's financials or accounting practices, but I can add some context on the author linked: Hubert Horan has published numerous articles with very negative outlooks on Uber over the last few years.
A good example is one of his original articles from 2016 [0], which calls Uber out for having -143% profit margins in 2015. In 2015Q1, Uber's revenue was $287MM and loss was 385MM. Horan claimed there was "no evidence that Uber’s rapid growth is driving the rapid margin improvements achieved by other prominent tech startups as they “grew into profitability.”"
However, 2018Q1's revenue was 8.7x and losses were only 1.2x the 2015Q1 numbers. Horan was clearly wrong, and underestimated the potential of the business. I believe he still doesn't 'get it'. If you don't believe in the potential for any growth business, the numbers can look bad on paper, but time will decide who will be vindicated and who will be disproven.
Incidentally that article also casts doubt on whether recent slowing of cost growth is material to profitability. It doesn’t look to be fully updated through 2018Q1 though.
[0]: < https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/can-uber-ever-delive... >