Uber Leads Gig Economy Pack

For just a minute, can we put aside relentless fundraising from artificial intelligence startups? Let’s give some airtime to the gig economy firms of an older generation of startups that are now minting the kind of money these newer firms can only dream about. Yes, we’re talking about the second-quarter numbers out Wednesday from Uber, DoorDash, Lyft and Airbnb, which between them generated $4.2 billion in free cash flow in the quarter—while each grew in double-digit percentage terms. 

Of this group, Uber is the standout, posting 18% higher revenue of $12.7 billion and 44% higher free cash flow of $2.475 billion. Both its food-delivery and ride-hailing businesses grew at a decent clip—20% and 16%, respectively, in gross bookings, the total dollar value of ride and delivery orders going through the service. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi deserves a lot of credit for making Uber a very profitable and growing company. And his strategy for the industry’s transition to robotaxis, now just beginning, sounds smart. As he said on The Information’s TITV video show today, Uber does better the more drivers are on its platform, “so just like we are looking to add more human drivers…we want to add more robot drivers.” (Read the transcript here.)