Uber Delivers 20% Growth in Q3
Yum! China's big on digital, LiCK incubator, Deliveroo's top dishes
It’s still earning season, with big results from Uber, Yum China and more. Meanwhile, Deliveroo’s got some intriguing new top delivery dishes worldwide, while LAUNCH and CloudKitchens are teaming up on a new incubator.
Join us Weds 11/13 in Little Tokyo for our Mobility Mixer - Dinner, Drinks & After Party.
Today:
Uber Keeps On Growing
Learning from Yum China
Chart Time | Deliveroo’s Top Trending Dishes
Launch & CloudKitchens’ New Incubator
FINANCE | Uber Delivers Big Growth in Q3
Uber published its Q3 ‘24 financial results, showing continued growth for the ridehailing and delivery giant. Gross Bookings grew 16% YoY to $41.0 billion (20% on a constant currency basis,) with Mobility Gross Bookings of up 17% (24% constant currency) to $21B and Delivery Gross Bookings climbing 16% (17% constant currency) to $18.7B. Revenue rose 20% to $11.2 billion, while income from operations hit $1.1 billion — up $667 million YoY and $265 million QoQ.
The Big Picture: Not only is top line rev still growing for Uber, but margins are increasing as well. Mobility’s revenue margin rose from 28.3% the year prior to 30.5% this past quarter, while delivery margins ramped from 18.2% to 18.6%. Dara and co. are also happy with the continued growth of their membership program, as Uber One hit 25 million users worldwide. The company was also keen to highlight its myriad new or expanded autonomy partnerships, including Waymo, Cruise, Coco, Wayve, WeRide, and Avride. On the delivery front, Uber’s also touting its 24-hour grocery partnership with Co-op in the UK, convenience delivery with Chile’s Oxxo and a courier pick and pack solution now live with AEON in Japan. Still, the stock trended down lightly as punters worried that Q4 growth might come in a bit cooler than originally anticipated.
EVENTS | Mobility Mixer - Dinner, Drinks & After Party — 11/13 in DTLA
Join your friends from Curbivore and Umojo for a lively evening of good food, great drinks and engaging conversation with the public and private sector leaders moving mobility forward on Weds 11/13 from 7:30 to 9 PM in Downtown LA.
It's a big week for mobility in LA, with the OMF Summit, CoMotion LA and Micromobility America all coming together — tap into the best of each world with our lively Little Tokyo after party!
FINANCE | Yum China Leads the Way
Yum China Holdings, the Chinese operator of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut (and a few less familiar brands) dropped its Q3, and it’s a master class in digital / delivery operations. Total revenue climbed 5% to $3.07 billion thanks to a surge in new storefronts, while operating profit climbed a health 15% to $371 million. Delivery sales were up a whopping 18% YoY, maintaining a decade-long double digit growth streak. Delivery now contributes to 40% of KFC China and Pizza Hut China’s sales. Digital sales now account for 90$ of total company sales, worth a cool $2.61 billion.
The Big Picture: While Yum! Brands spun out Yum China (note the differing punctuation…) back in 2016, the Middle Kingdom’s pizza and chicken purveyor has really outclassed its old parent co: last quarter, old Yum only saw sales grow 3%, while digital mix sat closer to 50% of sales. Pizza Hut USA may have made online ordering history when it introduced PizzaNet back in 1994, but today it’s got some catching up to do. With Q3 results due tomorrow, stay tuned to see how their latest quarter compares with their Chinese spinoff’s.
CHART TIME | Deliveroo’s Top 100 Dishes
It’s not quite Spotify Wrapped, but Deliveroo’s Top 100 Dishes of the year always has some delicious data in it, and the 2024 edition is no exception. A big part of the fun is Deliveroo’s international mix, spanning locales like the UK, Italy, Hong Kong and Kuwait. It looks like folks are craving knafeh in Dubai and poké in Milan, but sorry Londoners are getting excited for “whole cucumber.”
STARTUPS | Launch & CloudKitchens Start Incubator
Jason Calacanis’ venture fund LAUNCH and ghost kitchen heavyweight CloudKitchens are teaming up to start cohort 2 of the LAUNCH CloudKitchens Incubator (LiCK), a 14-week program for chefs and entrepreneurs to start, build, and scale a food business. The remote-first program will pick seven upstarts, no existing kitchen experience necessary, to receive help with kitchen economics, business operations, digital marketing, sales, branding, and fundraising.
The Big Picture: "We believe there is a unique opportunity for founders to create the next legendary culinary brand enabled by these booming platforms, and we would like to accelerate the process for them,” notes Jason Calacanis. Calacanis was an early backer of Uber, back when it was helmed by Travis Kalanick. Kalanick now runs CloudKitchens, so it’s interesting to see this ol’ band back together to support businesses with very different margin profiles than classic software plays. Lucky companies will receive $100k for 10% of their businesses, plus additional resources from CloudKitchens.
A Few Good Links
Mobility companies offering free transport options to get you to the polls tomorrow — GO VOTE!!! Restaurant labor stats. More on TGI Friday’s bankruptcy. Red Lobster names new COO. FAT Brands to spin off 5% of BBQ holdings. Calif. earmarking $3.8B in transport funds. De minimis overhaul incoming. Amazon adds grocery delivery for FoodMaxx banners. Great American Cookies and Marble Slab Creamery get new loyalty app. Yoshi Mobility sells refueling biz to EzFill. DeepRoute.ai raises $100M for self-driving tech in China. Affirm launches in UK. Retailers embrace returnless refunds. Careem concocts food delivery “umbrella” hubs for beachside drop off. Starbucks revenue falls 3%. Gopuff starts accepting SNAP via Forage. Harry talks DoorDash loyalty innovations.
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