Uber and Lyft are lastly beginning to appear like totally different corporations

Uber and Lyft have been working on parallel tracks for a very long time. Drivers moonlight for each providers, prospects toggle between the 2 apps, and regardless of Lyft’s efforts to place itself as a “woke” various to Uber, the 2 corporations basically function equivalent ride-sharing providers within the US.

In fact, there’s so much to distinguish the 2 from each other. Uber is international, whereas Lyft solely operates in North America. Uber dominates ride-sharing, taking in roughly 70 % of US riders spending and leaving Lyft with the remaining. However this week’s earnings reviews revealed a a lot sharper divergence between the 2 corporations than we’ve seen prior to now, specifically round facet hustles.

Uber’s foremost facet hustle is supply. Meals and different supply bookings within the fourth quarter grew 33 % yr over yr. The corporate’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, advised traders that Uber’s supply enterprise reported its first quarterly revenue, together with supply within the US, and that “Uber Eats grew to become the fastest-growing supply participant in America.”

Lyft, in the meantime, has a small business-to-business supply operation however has no plans on attempting to deal with the a lot larger and riskier world of client supply. “As we’ve stated for a few years, we’re a transportation-focused firm,” Lyft president John Zimmer stated in his firm’s earnings name. “We wish to have one foremost client that we’re constructing for. And once more, we is not going to construct a consumer-facing market for groceries or meals.”

What Lyft has that Uber doesn’t, although, is a thriving micromobility enterprise. Lyft claims to be the biggest electrical bike operator in North America due to its bike-share enterprise, together with the extraordinarily in style Citi Bike in New York Metropolis. How in style are we speaking? In keeping with Zimmer, Citi Bike was the “twenty fifth most-ridden transit community in the USA.”

“To place this in context, final yr, extra individuals took rides on Citi Bikes than on BART, the Bay Space’s regional transit system,” he added.

The truth is, bike-share is a faster-growing enterprise for Lyft than ride-share. “Contemplate that in every quarter of 2021, the variety of riders utilizing our bikes and scooters along with ride-share constantly grew quicker than ride-share-only riders,” stated Zimmer.

Uber has largely deserted its two-wheeled operations, promoting its Soar bikes to Lime and ditching its electrical scooter enterprise as properly. Uber stays an investor in Lime, and prospects can lease Lime’s e-bikes and mopeds by means of Uber’s app. However for all intents and functions, Uber is out of the micromobility recreation.

One other key distinction between the businesses is their strategy to autonomous automobiles. Uber and Lyft had been each initially bullish about AVs, buying startups, hiring hundreds of engineers, and making large guarantees about robotaxis on their platforms. However as prices ballooned and timelines stretched, each corporations ultimately determined to chop their losses. Uber offered its AV enterprise to Aurora in 2020, whereas Lyft divested its self-driving unit to Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota, final yr.

However Lyft nonetheless sees a possibility in remaining in shut proximity to the AV world. The corporate made a take care of Ford-backed Argo.ai to place a whole bunch of the corporate’s autonomous automobiles on its platform. Zimmer stated he expects the partnership to scale to 1,000 automobiles throughout a number of markets by 2026.

“The Lyft community is a constantly enhancing product, stemming from a decade of engineering investments in billions of real-world rides,” he added. “Because of this, AV suppliers are more and more working with us to assist advance and commercialize their expertise.”

There have been zero mentions of AVs in Uber’s earnings name — which shouldn’t come as a complete shock. One of many firm’s self-driving check automobiles struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, again in 2017 in what many name the primary AV fatality. Federal investigators stated security lapses at Uber had been partially guilty for the demise. The corporate caught with its AV challenge for a number of years after the incident earlier than ultimately deciding to divest itself solely.

It’s not unsuitable to see Uber and Lyft as two sides of the identical coin. Each corporations nonetheless derive most of their income from automotive journeys. Each are extremely invested in subscription providers as a solution to construct loyalty amongst prospects and stop app-switching. And each are nonetheless embroiled in tense debates over gig work and driver classification.

However this most up-to-date quarter revealed that the way forward for each corporations may very well be extra totally different than initially anticipated.