Lyft may beat Uber in race to profitability

Ridesharing company Lyft has long operated in the shadow of its arch-nemesis Uber. Although Lyft has seen marked growth in many metrics, such as total rides facilitated, its figures have always seemingly paled in comparison to its $68 billion competitor.

Well, it appears that Lyft is possibly beating Uber in one very important way: a path to profitability.

In a new report from The Information, it’s revealed that while Lyft is still losing hundreds of millions each year, its burn rate is slowing considerably, with the company expecting to be profitable by 2018. Lyft lost roughly $600 million in 2016 on $700 million in revenue, according to the article, which was a significant improvement from the year prior, when it lost twice as much as the amount of revenue it collected. Lyft's performance was said to be much stronger in the second half of 2016 than the first.

While losing over half a billion dollars is shocking, it’s a bit less so when compared to the numbers posted by Uber. Late last month, The Information published a report covering much of those financials—a highlight being it had lost more than $800 million in 3Q alone.
 

Check out some of our previous coverage of the ridesharing market