ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Certain factors may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. You should carefully consider the following risks, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the sections titled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any of the following risks could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results, or prospects and could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline, which would cause you to lose all or part of your investment. Our business, financial condition, operating results, or prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe are material.
Risk Factor Summary
The following are some of these risks, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business financial condition, operating results, or prospects.
• Our business would be adversely affected if Drivers were classified as employees, workers or quasi-employees instead of independent contractors.
• The mobility, delivery, and logistics industries are highly competitive, with well-established and low-cost alternatives that have been available for decades, low barriers to entry, low switching costs, and well-capitalized competitors in nearly every major geographic region.
• To remain competitive in certain markets, we have in the past lowered, and may continue to lower, fares or service fees, and we have in the past offered, and may continue to offer, significant Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions.
• We have incurred significant losses, including in the United States and other major markets. We expect our operating expenses to increase in the foreseeable future, and we may not maintain profitability.
• If we are unable to attract or maintain a critical mass of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, whether as a result of competition or other factors, our platform will become less appealing to platform users.
• Our business depends on retaining and attracting high-quality personnel, and continued attrition, future attrition, or unsuccessful succession planning could adversely affect our business.
• Maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation is critical to our business prospects. We receive significant media coverage, including negative publicity regarding our brand and reputation, and while we have taken significant steps to rehabilitate our brand and reputation, failure to maintain and enhance our brand and reputation will cause our business to suffer.
• We may fail to offer autonomous vehicle technologies on our platform at competitive scale, fail to offer such technologies or scale on our platform before our competitors, or such technologies may fail to perform as expected, may be inferior to those offered by our competitors, or may be perceived as less safe than those offered by competitors or non-autonomous vehicles.
• If we are unable to optimize our organizational structure or effectively manage our growth, our financial performance and future prospects will be adversely affected.
• Our historical workplace culture and forward-leaning approach created operational, compliance, and cultural challenges and our efforts to address these challenges may not be successful.
• Platform users may engage in, or be subject to, criminal, violent, inappropriate, or dangerous activity that results in major safety incidents, which may harm our ability to attract and retain Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers.
• We are making substantial investments in new offerings and technologies, and may increase such investments in the future. These new ventures are inherently risky, and we may never realize any expected benefits from them.
• We generate a significant percentage of our Gross Bookings from trips in large metropolitan areas, and these operations may be negatively affected by economic, social, weather, and regulatory conditions, public health concerns or other circumstances.
• We have experienced and may experience security or privacy breaches or other unauthorized or improper access to, acquisition of, use of, disclosure of, alteration of or destruction of our proprietary or confidential data, employee data, or platform user data.
• Cyberattacks, including computer malware, ransomware, viruses, denial of service attacks, account takeovers, spamming, phishing, and social engineering attacks could harm our reputation, business, and operating results.
• Our growing use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning may present additional risks, including risks associated with algorithm development or use, the tools and data sets used, and/or a complex, developing regulatory environment.
• We are subject to climate risks, including physical and transitional risks, and if we are unable to manage such risks, our business may be adversely impacted.
• Increased attention to, and evolving expectations regarding environmental and social matters may adversely impact our business, reputation and liabilities, including in the context of certain goals we have announced.
• Occurrence of a catastrophic event, including but not limited to disease, a weather event, war, or terrorist attack, could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operation.
• We rely on third parties maintaining open marketplaces to distribute our platform and to provide the software we use in certain of our products and offerings. If such third parties interfere with the distribution of our products or offerings or with our use of such software, our business would be adversely affected.
• We will require additional capital to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on reasonable terms or at all.
• If we are unable to successfully identify, acquire and integrate suitable businesses, our operating results and prospects could be harmed, and any businesses we acquire may not perform as expected or be effectively integrated.
• We may continue to be blocked from or limited in providing or operating our products and offerings in certain jurisdictions, and may be required to modify our business model in those jurisdictions as a result.
• Our business is subject to numerous legal and regulatory risks that could have an adverse impact on our business and future prospects.
• Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight relating to the provision of payment and financial services.
• We face risks related to our collection, use, transfer, disclosure, deletion and other processing of data, which have resulted and may result in investigations, inquiries, litigation, fines, legislative and regulatory action, and negative press about our privacy and data protection practices.
• If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, or if third parties are successful in claiming that we are misappropriating the intellectual property of others, we may incur significant expense and our business may be adversely affected.
• The market price of our common stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile or may decline steeply or suddenly regardless of our operating performance, and we may not be able to meet investor or analyst expectations. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid and may lose all or part of your investment.
Operational and Economic Risks Related to Our Business
Operational Risks
Our business would be adversely affected if Drivers were classified as employees, workers or quasi-employees.
The classification of Drivers is currently being challenged in courts, by legislators and by government agencies in the United States and abroad. We are involved in numerous legal proceedings globally, including putative class and collective class action lawsuits, demands for arbitration, charges and claims before administrative agencies, and investigations or audits by labor, social security, and tax authorities that claim that Drivers should be treated as our employees (or as workers or quasi-employees where those statuses exist), rather than as independent contractors. We believe that Drivers are independent contractors because, among other things, they can choose whether, when, and where to provide services on our platform, are free to provide services on our competitors’ platforms, and provide a vehicle to perform services on our platform. Nevertheless, we may not be successful in defending the classification of Drivers in some or all jurisdictions. Furthermore, the costs associated with defending, settling, or resolving pending and future lawsuits (including demands for arbitration) relating to the classification of Drivers have been and may continue to be material to our business.
In addition, more than 150,000 Drivers in the United States who have entered into arbitration agreements with us have filed (or expressed an intention to file) arbitration demands against us that assert similar classification claims. We have resolved the classification claims of a majority of these Drivers under individual settlement agreements. Furthermore, we are involved in numerous legal proceedings regarding the enforceability of arbitration agreements entered into with Drivers. If we are not successful in such proceedings, this could negatively impact the enforceability of arbitration agreements in other legal proceedings, which could have an adverse consequence on our business and financial condition.
Changes to foreign, state, and local laws governing the definition or classification of independent contractors, or judicial decisions regarding independent contractor classification, could require classification of Drivers as employees (or workers or quasi-employees where those statuses exist) and/or representation of Drivers by labor unions. For example, California’s Assembly Bill 5 became effective as of January 1, 2020. Government authorities and private plaintiffs have brought litigation asserting that Assembly Bill 5 requires Drivers in California to be classified as employees.
In November 2020, California voters approved Proposition 22, a California state ballot initiative that provides a framework for drivers that use platforms like ours for independent work. Proposition 22 went into effect in December 2020 and we expect that Drivers will be able to maintain their status as independent contractors under California law and that we and our competitors will be required to comply with the provisions of Proposition 22. Although our stipulation to dissolve the California Attorney General’s preliminary injunction was granted in April 2021, that litigation remains pending, and we also may face liability relating to periods before the effective date of Proposition 22. The California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 22; however, legal challenges, including constitutional challenges, to Proposition 22 may continue to be filed.
We face similar challenges in other jurisdictions within the United States and abroad. For example, in July 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General filed a complaint against Uber and Lyft, alleging that drivers are misclassified, and seeking an injunction. That case was resolved in June 2024 with the understanding that drivers would continue to be classified as independent contractors. If we do not prevail in current litigation or similar actions that may be brought in the future, we may be required to treat Drivers as employees and/or make other changes to our business model in certain jurisdictions. If, as a result of legislation or judicial decisions, we are required to classify Drivers as employees (or as workers or quasi-employees where those statuses exist), we would incur significant additional expenses for compensating Drivers, including expenses associated with the application of wage and hour laws (including minimum wage, overtime, and meal and rest period requirements), employee benefits, social security contributions, taxes (direct and indirect), and potential penalties. In this case, we anticipate significant price increases for Riders to offset these additional costs; however, we believe that the financial impact to Uber would be moderated by the likelihood of other industry participants being similarly affected. Additionally, we may not have adequate Driver supply as Drivers may opt out of our platform
given the loss of flexibility under an employment model, and we may not be able to hire a majority of the Drivers currently using our platform. Another example is in France, where the government is seeking social security contributions based on an allegation that Drivers are employees. The government issued a demand for contributions, which we are challenging and which is subject to ongoing discussions and engagement with authorities. Further, any such reclassification would require us to fundamentally change our business model, and consequently have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows.
Other examples of judicial decisions include a decision by the French Supreme Court that a driver for a third-party meal delivery service was under a “subordinate relationship” of the service, indicating an employment relationship, decisions by the French Supreme Court in 2020 and 2023 that reclassified two UberX Drivers as employees (which were followed by inconsistent appellate decisions regarding employee status, and, in July 2025, by two French Supreme Court decisions analyzing Uber’s more recent model that concluded that the Drivers were independent contractors), decisions by several Swiss governmental bodies ruling that Drivers should be classified as employees for Swiss social security or regulatory purposes, a recent Spanish regulation of food delivery platforms that presumes employment status and a ruling in September 2021 by a Netherlands court that Mobility Drivers are employees within the meaning of the taxi collective bargaining agreement. As another example, in December 2024, the Mexican Congress passed a bill to amend Mexico’s Federal Labor Law and reclassify all mobility and delivery earners who make more than one minimum salary a month as employees, with traditional labor law rights, including sharing into the profits of the company. As another example, in November 2025, the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that four drivers are employees while logged into the Uber app.
In addition, reclassification of Drivers as employees, workers or quasi-employees where those statuses exist, have and could lead to groups of Drivers becoming represented by labor unions and similar organizations. For example, in May 2021, we formally recognized a UK driver union and in 2024, voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot initiative allowing drivers to collectively bargain as independent contractors. If a significant number of Drivers were to become unionized and collective bargaining agreement terms were to deviate significantly from our business model, our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. In addition, a labor dispute involving Drivers may harm our reputation, disrupt our operations and reduce our net revenues, and the resolution of labor disputes may increase our costs.
In addition, if we are required to classify Drivers as employees, workers or quasi-employees, this may impact our current financial statement presentation including revenue, cost of revenue, incentives and promotions as further described in our significant and critical accounting policies in the section titled “Critical Accounting Estimates” included in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and Note 1 in the section titled “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The mobility, delivery, and logistics industries are highly competitive, with well-established and low-cost alternatives that have been available for decades, low barriers to entry, low switching costs, and well-capitalized competitors in nearly every major geographic region. If we are unable to compete effectively in these industries, our business and financial prospects would be adversely impacted.
Our platform provides offerings in the mobility, delivery, and logistics industries. We compete on a global basis, and the markets in which we compete are highly fragmented. We face significant competition in each of the mobility and delivery industries globally and in the logistics industry in the United States and Canada from existing, well-established, and low-cost alternatives, and in the future we expect to face competition from new market entrants given the low barriers to entry that characterize these industries. In addition, within each of these markets, the cost to switch between products is low. Consumers have a propensity to shift to the lowest-cost or highest-quality provider; Drivers have a propensity to shift to the platform with the highest earnings potential; restaurants and other merchants have a propensity to shift to the delivery platform that offers the lowest service fee for their meals and other goods and provides the highest volume of orders; and Shippers and Carriers have a propensity to shift to the platform with the best price and most convenient service for hauling shipments.
Further, while we work to expand globally and introduce new products and offerings across a range of industries, many of our competitors remain focused on a limited number of products or on a narrow geographic scope, allowing them to develop specialized expertise and employ resources in a more targeted manner than we do. As we and our competitors introduce new products and offerings, and as existing products and offerings evolve, we expect to become subject to additional competition. In addition, our competitors may adopt certain of our product or offering features, or may adopt innovations that Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers value more highly than ours, which would render our products or offerings less attractive or reduce our ability to differentiate our products or offerings. Increased competition could result in, among other things, a reduction of the revenue we generate from the use of our platform, the number of platform users, the frequency of use of our platform, and our margins.
We face competition in each of our offerings, including:
• Mobility . Our Mobility offering competes with personal vehicle ownership and usage, which accounts for the majority of passenger miles in the markets that we serve, and traditional transportation services, including taxicab companies and taxi-hailing services, livery and other car services. In addition, public transportation can be a superior substitute to our Mobility offering and in many cases, offers a faster and lower-cost travel option in many cities. We also compete with other ridesharing companies, including certain of our minority-owned entities, for Drivers and riders, including Bolt, Didi, Lyft, and Ola. There are also a number of companies developing and introducing autonomous vehicles and technologies
that either are competing with us or may compete with us in the future, including Alphabet (Waymo), Amazon (Zoox), and Tesla.
• Delivery . Our Delivery offering competes with numerous companies in the meal, grocery and other delivery space in various regions for Drivers, consumers, and merchants, including DoorDash, Instacart, Gopuff, Rappi, Delivery Hero, Just Eat Takeaway, and Amazon. Our Delivery offering also competes with restaurants and other merchants, including those that offer their own delivery and/or take-away, meal kit delivery services, grocery delivery services, and traditional grocers.
• Freight. Our Freight offering competes with global and North American freight brokers and managed transportation providers such as C.H. Robinson, Total Quality Logistics, RXO, XPO, Echo Global Logistics, and DHL.
Many of our competitors are well-capitalized and offer discounted services, Driver incentives, consumer discounts and promotions, innovative products and offerings, and alternative pricing models, which may be more attractive to consumers than those that we offer. Further, some of our current or potential competitors have, and may in the future continue to have, greater resources and access to larger Driver, consumer, merchant, Shipper, or Carrier bases in particular geographic markets. In addition, our competitors in certain geographic markets enjoy substantial competitive advantages such as greater brand recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets, better localized knowledge, and more supportive regulatory regimes. As a result, such competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than us in such markets to new or changing opportunities, technologies, consumer preferences, regulations, or standards, which may render our products or offerings less attractive. In addition, future competitors may share in the of any regulatory or governmental approvals and victories we may , without having to incur the costs we have incurred to obtain such benefits.
As a result of certain divestitures, we are contractually restricted from competing with our current or former minority-owned entities with respect to certain aspects of our business, including in Southeast Asia through one year after we dispose of all interests in Grab, and the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan through two years after we dispose of all interests in Careem Technologies, while our minority-owned entities are not necessarily restricted from competing with us anywhere in the world. In addition, we are contractually restricted from competing with some of our majority-owned entities with respect to certain aspects of our business, including competing against Uber Freight with respect to freight brokerage.
Additionally, if we are unable to obtain regulatory approval of any acquisitions, we may not ultimately consummate such acquisitions, may be required to pay termination fees or may consummate them only in jurisdictions where antitrust approval is obtained. Further, in order to obtain regulatory approval of acquisitions, we may be required to divest all or part of our or the target company’s operations or agree to other remedies. Any such remedies could result in additional competition in some or all markets.
For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors. Our inability to compete effectively would have an adverse effect on, or otherwise harm, our business, financial condition, and operating results.
To remain competitive in certain markets, we have in the past lowered, and may continue to lower, fares or service fees, and we have in the past offered, and may continue to offer, significant Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions, which has adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect our financial performance.
To remain competitive in certain markets and generate network scale and liquidity, we have in the past lowered, and may continue to lower, fares or service fees, and we have offered and may continue to offer significant Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions. At times, in certain geographic markets, we have offered, and may continue to offer, Driver incentives that cause the total amount of the fare that a Driver retains, combined with the Driver incentives a Driver receives from us, to increase, at times meeting or exceeding the amount of Gross Bookings we generate for a given Trip. In certain geographic markets and regions, we do not have a leading category position, which may result in us choosing to further increase the amount of Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions that we offer in those geographic markets and regions. We cannot assure you that offering such Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions will be successful. Driver incentives, consumer discounts, promotions, and reductions in fares and our service fee have negatively affected, and will continue to negatively affect, our financial performance. Additionally, we rely on pricing models to calculate consumer fares and Driver earnings, which have been modified over time and will likely in the future be modified, and pricing models at times vary based upon jurisdiction. We cannot you that our pricing models or strategies will be in attracting consumers and Drivers. For example, changes we have made in California to the information that Drivers see in the application, as well as pricing and offer structure changes, impacted usage of the application. If we are to manage these and similar kinds of changes in the future, our business may be impacted.
The markets in which we compete have attracted significant investments from a wide range of funding sources, and we anticipate that many of our competitors will continue to be highly capitalized. Moreover, certain of our stockholders have made substantial investments in certain of our competitors and may increase such investments, make new investments in other competitors, or enter into strategic transactions with competitors in the future. These investments or strategic transactions, along with other competitive advantages discussed above, may allow our competitors to compete more effectively against us and continue to lower their prices, offer Driver incentives or consumer discounts and promotions, or otherwise attract Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and
Carriers to their platform and away from ours. Such competitive pressures may lead us to maintain or lower fares or service fees or maintain or increase our Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions. Ridesharing and certain other categories in which we compete are relatively nascent, and we cannot guarantee that they will stabilize at a competitive equilibrium that will allow us to maintain profitability.
We have incurred significant losses, including in the United States and other major markets. We expect our operating expenses to increase in the foreseeable future, and we may not maintain profitability.
As of December 31, 2025, we had an accumulated deficit of $10.6 billion. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels and decrease proportionate expenses in future periods to achieve or maintain profitability in many of our largest markets, including in the United States, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability. We may incur losses in the near term as a result of substantial increases in our operating expenses, as we continue to invest in order to: increase the number of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers using our platform through incentives, discounts, and promotions; expand within existing or into new markets; increase our research and development expenses; expand marketing channels and operations; hire additional employees; and add new products and offerings to our platform. These efforts may prove more expensive than we anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently to offset these expenses. Many of our efforts to generate revenue are new and unproven, and any failure to adequately increase revenue or contain the related costs could prevent us from or increasing . In addition, we sometimes introduce new products that we expect to add value to our overall platform and network but which we expect will generate lower Gross Bookings per Trip or a lower Revenue Margin. Further, we may charge a lower service fee to certain of our merchant partners on our Delivery offering to grow the number of Delivery consumers, which may at times result in a Revenue Margin with respect to those transactions after considering amounts collected from consumers and paid to Drivers. As we expand our offerings to additional cities, our offerings in these cities may be less than the markets in which we currently operate. As such, we may not be to maintain in the near term, in accordance with our expectations, or at all. Additionally, we may not realize the operating we expect to as a result of our prior or future acquisitions. Even if we do experience operating , our operating results may not , at least in the near term.
If we are unable to attract or maintain a sufficient number of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, whether as a result of competition or other factors, our platform will become less appealing to platform users, and our financial results would be adversely impacted.
Our success in a given geographic market significantly depends on our ability to develop our network scale and liquidity in that geographic market by attracting Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers to our platform. If Drivers choose not to offer their services through our platform, we may lack a sufficient supply of Drivers to attract consumers and merchants to our platform. We have experienced and expect to continue to experience Driver supply constraints in most geographic markets in which we operate. To the extent that we experience Driver supply constraints in a given market, we may need to increase or may not be able to reduce the Driver incentives that we offer without adversely affecting the supply liquidity that we experience in that market. Similarly, if Carriers choose not to offer their services through our platform or elect to use other freight brokers, we may lack a sufficient supply of Carriers in specific geographic markets to attract Shippers to our platform. Furthermore, if merchants choose to partner with other delivery services in a specific geographic market, or if merchants choose to engage exclusively with our competitors, other merchant marketing websites, or other delivery services, we may lack a sufficient variety and supply of restaurant and other merchant options, or access to the most merchants, such that our Delivery offering will become less appealing to consumers and merchants. A significant amount of our Delivery Gross Bookings come from a limited number of large restaurant groups and other merchants, and this concentration increases the risk of fluctuations in our operating results and our sensitivity to any material developments experienced by our significant merchant partners. If platform users choose to use other ridesharing, delivery, or logistics services, we may sufficient for Drivers to earn a fare, Carriers to book a shipment, or merchants to provide their goods, which may reduce the perceived utility of our platform. An supply of platform users would decrease our network liquidity and affect our revenue and financial results. Although we may from having larger scale and liquidity than some competitors, those network effects may not result in competitive or may be by smaller competitors. Maintaining a balance between supply and demand in any given area at any given time and our ability to execute operationally may be more important to service quality than the absolute size of the network. If our service quality or our competitors’ products market adoption, our competitors may be to grow at a quicker rate than we do and may our network effect.
Our number of platform users may decline materially or fluctuate as a result of many factors, including, among other things, dissatisfaction with the operation of our platform, the price of fares, food, and shipments (including a reduction in incentives), broader economic and labor market dynamics, changes in government policy, dissatisfaction with the quality of service provided by the Drivers and merchants on our platform, quality of platform user support, dissatisfaction with the merchant selection on Delivery, negative publicity related to our brand, including as a result of safety incidents and corporate reporting related to safety, perceived political or geopolitical affiliations, a pandemic or an outbreak of disease or similar public health concern, or fear of such an event, treatment of Drivers, perception that our culture has not fundamentally changed, dissatisfaction with changes we make to our products and offerings, or dissatisfaction with our products and offerings in general. In addition, if we are to provide high-quality support to platform users or respond to reported , including safety , in a timely and acceptable manner, our ability to
attract and retain platform users could be adversely affected. If Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers do not establish or maintain active accounts with us, if a social media or other campaign encouraging users to cease use of our platform takes hold, if we fail to provide high-quality support, or if we cannot otherwise attract and retain a large number of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, our revenue would decline, and our business would suffer.
The number of Drivers and merchants on our platform could decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including Drivers ceasing to provide their services through our platform, passage or enforcement of local laws limiting our products and offerings, the low switching costs between competitor platforms or services, and dissatisfaction with our brand or reputation, pricing models (including potential reductions in incentives), ability to prevent safety incidents, or other aspects of our business. In addition, changes in or increased enforcement efforts pursuant to certain laws and regulations, including immigration and labor and employment laws, or laws that require us to make changes to our platform that decrease accessibility, including removing access to our platform, or flexibility provided to Drivers in certain jurisdictions, may result in a decrease in the pool of Drivers, which may result in increased competition for Drivers or higher costs of attracting and maintaining Drivers. While we aim to provide an earnings opportunity comparable to that available in retail, wholesale, or merchant services or other similar work, we continue to experience dissatisfaction with our platform from a significant number of Drivers. In particular, as we aim to reduce Driver incentives to our financial performance, we expect Driver will generally increase.
Often, we are forced to make tradeoffs between the satisfaction of various platform users, as a change that one category of users views as positive will likely be viewed as negative to another category of users. We also take certain measures to protect against fraud, help increase safety, and prevent privacy and security breaches, including terminating access to our platform for users with low ratings or reported incidents, and imposing certain qualifications for Drivers and merchants, which may damage our relationships with platform users or discourage or diminish their use of our platform. Further, we are investing in our autonomous vehicle strategy, which may add to Driver dissatisfaction over time, as it may reduce the need for Drivers. Driver dissatisfaction has in the past resulted in by Drivers in various regions, including India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Such have resulted, and any future may result, in to our business. Continued Driver may also result in a in our number of platform users, which would reduce our network liquidity, and which in turn may cause a further in platform usage. Any in the number of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, or Carriers using our platform would reduce the value of our network and would our future operating results.
In addition, changes in Driver qualification and background-check requirements may increase our costs and reduce our ability to onboard additional Drivers to our platform. Our Driver qualification and background check process varies by jurisdiction, and there have been allegations, including from regulators, legislators, prosecutors, taxicab owners, and consumers, and raised by private plaintiffs in courts, that our background check process is insufficient or inadequate. With respect to Drivers who are only eligible to make deliveries through Delivery, our qualification and background check standards are generally less extensive than the standards for Drivers who are eligible to provide rides through our Mobility products. Legislators and regulators may pass laws or adopt regulations in the future requiring Drivers to undergo a materially different type of qualification, screening, or background check process, or that limit our ability to access information used in the background check process in an efficient manner, which could be costly and time-consuming. Required changes in the qualification, screening, and background check process (including any changes to such processes of Careem, Postmates or other acquired companies) could also reduce the number of Drivers in those markets or extend the time required to recruit new Drivers to our platform, which would impact our business and growth. Furthermore, we rely on a single background-check provider in certain jurisdictions, and we may not be to arrange for adequate background checks from a different provider on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The of this provider to provide background checks on a timely basis would result in our to onboard new Drivers or retain existing Drivers undergoing periodic background checks that are required to continue using our platform.
Maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation is critical to our business prospects. We receive significant media coverage, including negative publicity regarding our brand and reputation, and while we have taken significant steps to rehabilitate our brand and reputation, failure to maintain or enhance our brand and reputation will cause our business to suffer.
Maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation is critical to our ability to attract new employees and platform users, to preserve and deepen the engagement of our existing employees and platform users, and to mitigate legislative or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, government investigations, and adverse platform user sentiment.
We receive a high degree of negative media coverage around the world, which adversely affects our brand and reputation and fuels distrust of our company. Negative publicity adversely affects our brand and reputation, makes it difficult for us to attract and retain platform users, reduces confidence in and use of our products and offerings, invites continued legislative and regulatory scrutiny, and results in additional litigation and governmental investigations. As a result, our competitors raised additional capital, increased their investments in certain markets, and improved their category positions and market shares, and may continue to do so.
In 2024, we released a third safety report, which provides the public with data related to reports of sexual assaults and other critical safety incidents claimed to have occurred on our platform in the United States. Public responses to our safety reports or any future safety reports or similar public reporting of safety incidents claimed to have occurred on our platform, which may include disclosure of reports provided to regulators and other government authorities, as well as public responses to any third-party
assessments of our civil rights impact, may continue to result in positive and negative media coverage, increased regulatory scrutiny, and litigation, and could adversely affect our reputation with platform users. Media coverage of litigation and of regulatory scrutiny can also adversely affect our reputation and brand. Further unfavorable media coverage and negative publicity of these and other kinds could adversely impact our financial results and future prospects. As our platform continues to scale and becomes increasingly interconnected, resulting in increased media coverage and public awareness of our brand, future damage to our brand and reputation could have an amplified effect on our various platform offerings. Additionally, some of our acquired and majority-owned companies, including Careem, Postmates and Cornershop, have or will continue to use their own brands and/or operate their own apps in parallel with our brand and apps, and any or reputational to their brands could impact our brand and reputation.
Our brand and reputation might also be harmed by events outside of our control. For example, we have licensed our brand in connection with certain divestitures and joint ventures, including to Yandex in Russia/CIS, and while we have certain contractual protections in place governing the use of our brand by these companies, we do not control these businesses, we are not able to anticipate their actions, and consumers may not be aware that these service providers are not controlled by us. Furthermore, if Drivers, merchants, or Carriers provide diminished quality of service, are involved in incidents regarding safety or privacy, engage in malfeasance, or otherwise violate the law, we may receive unfavorable press coverage and our reputation and business may be harmed. As a result, any of these third parties could take actions that result in harm to our brand, reputation, and consequently, our business.
While we have taken significant steps to rehabilitate our brand and reputation, the successful rehabilitation of our brand will depend largely on maintaining a good reputation, minimizing the number of safety incidents, continuing an improved culture and workplace practices, improving our compliance programs, continuing to invest in safety features and improvements, maintaining a high quality of service and ethical behavior, and continuing our marketing and public relations efforts. Our brand promotion, reputation building, and media strategies have involved significant costs and may not be successful. We anticipate that other competitors and potential competitors will expand their offerings, which will make maintaining and enhancing our reputation and brand increasingly more difficult and expensive. If we fail to successfully maintain our brand in the current or future competitive environment or if events occur in the future which negatively affect public perception of our company, our brand and reputation would be further and our business may .
If we fail to offer autonomous vehicle technologies on our platform at competitive scale or fail to offer such technologies or scale on our platform before our competitors, or if such technologies fail to perform as expected, are inferior to those offered by our competitors, or are perceived as less safe than those offered by competitors or non-autonomous vehicles, our financial performance and prospects would be adversely impacted.
We have invested, and we may continue to invest, substantial amounts in companies with whom we partner to offer autonomous vehicle technologies on our platform. For example, our investments into and commercial partnerships with various autonomous mobility and/or autonomous delivery companies currently support the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle technology capable of operation in the United States and globally. We believe that autonomous vehicle technologies may have the ability to meaningfully impact the industries in which we compete and that autonomous vehicles present substantial opportunities. Several companies, including Waymo, Tesla, and Zoox (a subsidiary of Amazon), are developing autonomous vehicle technologies in the United States, either alone or through collaborations with car manufacturers, as are similar companies globally, and we expect that they will use such technology to further compete with us in the mobility, delivery, or logistics industries. Waymo has introduced a commercialized ridehailing fleet of autonomous vehicles on its own platform in addition to a fleet of autonomous vehicles that it makes available through our platform, and it is possible that our competitors could introduce autonomous vehicle offerings earlier than we will be able to offer autonomous vehicles on our platform or that our commercial partnerships could expire or that our autonomous vehicle partners could experience organizational failures of their own or otherwise remove their vehicles from our platform. In the event that our competitors bring autonomous vehicles to market before we are to offer autonomous vehicles on our platform, deploy their autonomous vehicles on ridesharing, delivery or logistics platforms other than ours, or their technology is or is perceived to be to the technology of parties with which we partner to offer autonomous vehicles on our platform, or their infrastructure or operational expertise in support of autonomous vehicles is or is perceived to be or more or than offerings on our platform, they may be to leverage such technology to compete more effectively with us, which would impact our financial performance and our prospects. For example, use of autonomous vehicles could substantially reduce the cost of providing ridesharing, delivery, or logistics services, which could allow competitors to offer such services at a substantially lower price as compared to the price available to consumers on our platform. If a significant number of consumers choose to use our competitors’ offerings over ours, our financial performance and prospects would be impacted.
Autonomous vehicle technologies involve significant risks and liabilities. Collisions, including fatal collisions, have happened. Failures of autonomous vehicle technologies that we may offer on our platform or crashes involving autonomous vehicles using the technology of our partners, could generate substantial liability for us, create negative publicity about us, or result in regulatory scrutiny, all of which would have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, prospects, and operating results.
Federal and state government regulations, or their equivalents abroad, specifically designed to govern autonomous vehicle operation, testing and/or manufacture are developing. These regulations could include requirements that delay or limit our ability to
offer autonomous vehicles on our platform. If regulations of this nature are implemented, we may not be able to offer autonomous vehicle technologies on our platform in the manner we expect, or at all. Further, if we or parties with which we partner to offer autonomous vehicle technologies are unable to comply with existing or new regulations or laws applicable to autonomous vehicles, we and our partners could become subject to substantial fines or penalties.
Our workforce and operations have grown substantially since our inception and we have in the past implemented several reductions in workforce. If we are unable to optimize our organizational structure or effectively manage our growth or any future reductions in workforce, our financial performance and future prospects will be adversely affected.
Since our inception, we have experienced rapid growth in the United States and internationally. This expansion increases the complexity of our business and has placed, and will continue to place, significant strain on our management, personnel, operations, systems, technical performance, financial resources, and internal financial control and reporting functions. We may not be able to manage our growth effectively, which could damage our reputation and negatively affect our operating results.
As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 34,000 global employees, of whom approximately 20,300 were located outside the United States. The total number of our employees located outside the United States has increased and may continue to increase as we expand globally. Properly managing our growth will require us to continue to hire, train, and manage qualified employees and staff, including engineers, operations personnel, financial and accounting staff, and sales and marketing staff, and to improve and maintain our technology. If our new hires perform poorly, if we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, managing, and integrating new employees and staff, or if we are not successful in retaining our existing employees and staff, our business may be harmed. Moreover, in order to optimize our organizational structure, we have implemented several reductions in workforce and restructurings, and may in the future implement other reductions in workforce. Any reduction in workforce or restructuring may yield unintended consequences and costs, such as attrition beyond the intended reduction in workforce, the of employees, or reduced employee morale and could affect our reputation as an employer, which could make it more for us to hire new employees in the future and increase the risk that we may not the anticipated benefits from the reduction in workforce. Properly managing our growth or any reductions in workforce will require us to establish consistent policies across regions and functions, and a to do so could likewise our business.
Our failure to upgrade our technology or network infrastructure effectively to support our growth could result in unanticipated system disruptions, slow response times, or poor experiences for Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers. To manage the growth of our operations and personnel and improve the technology that supports our business operations, as well as our financial and management systems, disclosure controls and procedures, and internal controls over financial reporting, we will be required to commit substantial financial, operational, and technical resources. In particular, we will need to improve our transaction processing and reporting, operational, and financial systems, procedures, and controls. For example, due to our significant growth, especially with respect to emerging offerings, we face challenges in timely and appropriately designing controls in response to evolving risks of material misstatement. These improvements are and will be particularly challenging when we acquire new businesses with different systems. Our current and planned personnel, systems, procedures, and controls may not be adequate to support our future operations. If we are to expand our operations and hire additional qualified personnel in an manner, or if our operational technology is to reliably service Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, or Carriers, platform user will be affected and may cause platform users to switch to our competitors’ platforms, which would affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Our organizational structure is complex and will continue to grow as we add additional Drivers, consumers, merchants, Carriers, Shippers, employees, products and offerings, and technologies, and as we continue to expand globally. We will need to improve our operational, financial, and management controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures to support the growth of our organizational structure. We will require capital and management resources to grow and mature in these areas. If we are unable to effectively manage the growth of our business, the quality of our platform may suffer, and we may be unable to address competitive challenges, which would adversely affect our overall business, operations, and financial condition.
Our historical workplace culture and forward-leaning approach created operational, compliance, and cultural challenges, and a failure to address these challenges would adversely impact our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.
Our historical workplace culture and forward-leaning approach created significant operational and cultural challenges that have in the past harmed, and may in the future continue to harm, our business results and financial condition. Our prior failure to prioritize compliance has led to increased regulatory scrutiny globally. Although we have since made changes in our company’s cultural values and composition of our leadership team and have an ongoing commitment to promote transparency and collaboration, regulators may continue to perceive us negatively, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.
If platform users engage in, or are subject to, criminal, violent, inappropriate, or dangerous activity that results in major safety incidents, our ability to attract and retain Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers may be harmed, which could have an adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial condition, and operating results.
We are not able to control or predict the actions of platform users and third parties, either during their use of our platform or otherwise, and we may be unable to protect or provide a safe environment for Drivers and consumers as a result of certain actions by
Drivers, consumers, merchants, Carriers, and third parties. Such actions may result in injuries, property damage, or loss of life for consumers and third parties, or business interruption, brand and reputational damage, or significant liabilities for us. Although we administer certain qualification processes for users of our platform, including background checks on Drivers through third-party service providers in the United States, these qualification processes and background checks may not expose all potentially relevant information and are limited in certain jurisdictions according to national and local laws, and our third-party service providers where utilized may fail to conduct such background checks adequately or disclose information that could be relevant to a determination of eligibility. Further, the qualification and background check standards for Couriers are generally less extensive than those conducted for Mobility Drivers. In addition, we do not independently test Drivers’ driving skills. Consequently, we expect to continue to receive complaints from riders and other consumers, as well as actual or legal action us related to Driver conduct. We have also faced civil , among other things, Driver qualification processes and background checks, and general regarding the safety of our platform.
If Drivers or Carriers, or individuals impersonating Drivers or Carriers, engage in criminal activity, misconduct, or inappropriate conduct or use our platform as a conduit for criminal activity, consumers and Shippers may not consider our products and offerings safe, and we may receive negative press coverage as a result of our business relationship with such Driver or Carrier, which would adversely impact our brand, reputation, and business. There have been numerous incidents and allegations worldwide of Drivers, or individuals impersonating Drivers, sexually assaulting, abusing, kidnapping and/or fatally injuring consumers, or otherwise engaging in criminal activity while using our platform or claiming to use our platform. Furthermore, if consumers engage in activity or while using our platform, Drivers and merchants may be to continue using our platform. In addition, certain regions where we operate have high rates of , which has impacted Drivers and consumers in those regions. For example, in Latin America, there have been numerous reports of Drivers and consumers being victimized by , such as armed robbery, , and rape, while taking or providing a trip on our platform. If other , , or other occur due to the conduct of platform users or third parties, our ability to attract platform users may be , and our business and financial results could be affected.
Public reporting or disclosure of reported safety information, including information about safety incidents reportedly occurring on or related to our platform, whether generated by us or third parties such as media or regulators, may adversely impact our business and financial results.
Further, we may be subject to claims of significant liability based on traffic accidents, deaths, injuries, or other incidents that are caused by Drivers, consumers, or third parties while using our platform, or even when Drivers, consumers, or third parties are not actively using our platform. On a smaller scale, we may face litigation related to claims by Drivers for the actions of consumers or third parties. Furthermore, operating a motor vehicle is inherently dangerous. In addition, the growth of our Delivery offering and launch of lower-cost product types has led to an increase in Drivers and consumers on two wheel vehicles such as scooters, bicycles, motorbikes, and motorcycles, who are more vulnerable road users and face a more severe level of injury in the event of a collision than that faced while driving in a vehicle. For example, urban hazards such as unpaved or uneven roadways increase the risk and of potential . In addition, Drivers, in particular those on two wheel vehicles predominantly in metropolitan areas, need to share, navigate, and at times with narrow and heavily congested roads occupied by cars, buses and light rail, especially during “rush” hours, all of which heighten the potential risk of or death. Our auto liability and general liability insurance policies may not cover all potential to which we are , and may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability. These may subject us to liability, publicity, and regulatory , which would increase our operating costs and affect our business, operating results, and future prospects. Even if these do not result in liability, we will incur significant costs in and them. As we expand our products and offerings, this insurance risk will grow.
We are making substantial investments in new offerings and technologies, and may increase such investments in the future. These new ventures are inherently risky, and we may never realize any expected benefits from them.
We have made substantial investments to develop new offerings and technologies, and we intend to continue investing significant resources in developing new technologies, tools, features, services, products and offerings. For example, through our acquisition of Cornershop, a provider of online grocery delivery in several countries including Mexico and Chile, we expanded our Delivery offering to grocery delivery. Additionally, in October 2021, we acquired The Drizly Group, Inc. in order to further expand our Delivery offering to alcohol. In November 2021, our subsidiary Uber Freight acquired Transplace, expanding Uber Freight’s business through Transplace’s expertise in transportation management. We also plan to invest resources to develop offerings and technologies in the markets in which Postmates operate. If we do not spend our development budget efficiently or effectively on commercially successful and innovative technologies, we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Our new initiatives also have a high degree of risk, as each involves nascent industries and unproven business strategies and technologies with which we have limited or no prior development or operating experience. Because such offerings and technologies are new, they will likely involve claims and liabilities (including, but not limited to, personal injury claims), expenses, regulatory , and other risks, some of which we do not currently anticipate.
There can be no assurance that consumer demand for such initiatives will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate, or that any of these initiatives will gain sufficient traction or market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset any new expenses or liabilities associated with these new investments. It is also possible that products and offerings developed by others will render our
products and offerings noncompetitive or obsolete. Further, our development efforts with respect to new products, offerings and technologies could distract management from current operations, and will divert capital and other resources from our more established products, offerings and technologies. Even if we are successful in developing new products, offerings or technologies, regulatory authorities may subject us to new rules or restrictions in response to our innovations that could increase our expenses or prevent us from successfully commercializing new products, offerings or technologies. If we do not realize the expected benefits of our investments, our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects may be harmed.
Our business is substantially dependent on operations outside the United States, including those in markets in which we have limited experience, and if we are unable to manage the risks presented by our business model internationally, our financial results and future prospects will be adversely impacted.
As of December 31, 2025, we operated in over 70 countries. We have limited experience operating in many jurisdictions outside of the United States and have made, and expect to continue to make, significant investments to expand our international operations and compete with local and other global competitors.
Conducting our business internationally, particularly in countries in which we have limited experience, subjects us to risks that we do not face to the same degree in the United States. These risks include, among others:
• operational and compliance challenges caused by distance, language, and cultural differences;
• the resources required to localize our business, which requires the translation of our mobile app and website into foreign languages and the adaptation of our operations to local practices, laws, and regulations and any changes in such practices, laws, and regulations;
• laws and regulations more restrictive than those in the United States, including laws governing competition, pricing, payment methods, Internet activities, transportation services (such as taxis and vehicles for hire), transportation network companies (such as ridesharing), logistics services, payment processing and payment gateways, real estate tenancy laws, tax and social security laws, employment and labor laws, driver screening and background checks, licensing regulations, email messaging, privacy, location services, collection, use, processing, or sharing of personal information, ownership of intellectual property, AI, and other activities important to our business;
• competition with companies or other services (such as taxis or vehicles for hire) that understand local markets better than we do, that have pre-existing relationships with potential platform users in those markets, or that are favored by government or regulatory authorities in those markets;
• differing levels of social acceptance of our brand, products, and offerings;
• differing levels of technological compatibility with our platform;
• exposure to business cultures in which improper business practices may be prevalent;
• legal uncertainty regarding our liability for the actions of platform users and third parties, including uncertainty resulting from unique local laws or a lack of clear legal precedent;
• difficulties in managing, growing, and staffing international operations, including in countries in which foreign employees may become part of labor unions, employee representative bodies, or collective bargaining agreements, and challenges relating to work stoppages or slowdowns;
• fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
• managing operations in markets in which cash transactions are favored over credit or debit cards;
• regulations governing the control of local currencies that impact our ability to collect fares on behalf of Drivers and remit those funds to Drivers in the same currencies, as well as higher levels of credit risk and payment fraud;
• adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value added and digital services tax systems, and restrictions on the repatriation of earnings;
• increased financial accounting and reporting burdens, and complexities associated with implementing and maintaining adequate internal controls;
• difficulties in implementing and maintaining the financial systems and processes needed to enable compliance across multiple offerings and jurisdictions;
• import and export restrictions and changes in trade regulation, including tariffs;
• political, geopolitical, social, and economic instability abroad, war, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, terrorist attacks and security concerns in general, and societal crime conditions that harm or disrupt the global economy and/or can directly impact platform users;
• public health concerns or emergencies, including pandemics and other highly communicable diseases or viruses, outbreaks of which have from time to time occurred in various parts of the world in which we operate; and
• reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some markets.
These risks could adversely affect our international operations, which could in turn adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
We have limited influence over our minority-owned entities, which subjects us to substantial risks, including potential loss of value.
Our growth strategy has included the restructuring of our business and assets by divesting our business and assets in certain jurisdictions and partnering with and investing in local ridesharing, and delivery companies to participate in those markets rather than operate in those markets independently. Our growth strategy has also included the divestment of certain lines of business in their entirety, and not just in certain jurisdictions, and instead partnering and investing in other companies in those lines of business. As a result, a significant portion of our assets includes minority ownership positions, including in Didi, Grab, and Aurora.
Our ownership in these entities involves significant risks that are outside our control. As a result, these companies may make decisions or take actions with which we disagree or that may be harmful to the value of our ownership in these companies. Additionally, these companies have expanded their offerings, and we expect them to continue to expand their offerings in the future. While this could enhance the value of our ownership interest in these companies, our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects would be adversely affected by such expansion.
Any material decline in the business of these entities would adversely affect the value of our assets and our financial results. Furthermore, the value of these assets is based in part on the market valuations of these entities, and weakened financial markets have adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect such valuations. To the extent these businesses are or become publicly traded companies, volatility or fluctuations in the stock price of such companies could adversely impact our financial results. These positions could expose us to risks, litigation, and unknown liabilities because, among other things, these companies have limited operating histories in evolving industries and may have less predictable operating results; to the extent these companies are privately owned, limited public information is available and we may not learn all the material information regarding these businesses; are domiciled and operate in countries with particular economic, tax, political, legal, safety, regulatory and public health risks; are domiciled or operate in countries that may become subject to economic sanctions or foreign investment restrictions; depend on the management talents and efforts of a small group of individuals, and, as a result, the death, disability, , or of one or more of these individuals could have an effect on the relevant company’s operations; and will likely require substantial additional capital to support their operations and expansion and to maintain their competitive positions.
Further, we are contractually limited in our ability to sell or transfer these assets. In addition, we may be required to sell these assets at a time at which we would not be able to realize what we believe to be the long-term value of these assets. For example, if we were deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), we may be required to sell some or all of such assets so that we would not be subject to the requirements of the Investment Company Act. Additionally, we may have to pay significant taxes upon the sale or transfer of these assets. Accordingly, we may never realize the value of these assets relative to the contributions we made to these businesses.
We may experience significant fluctuations in our operating results. If we are unable to achieve or sustain profitability, our prospects would be adversely affected and investors may lose some or all of the value of their investment.
Our operating results may vary significantly and are not necessarily an indication of future performance. These fluctuations may be a result of a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition, we experience seasonal fluctuations in our financial results. For Mobility, we typically generate higher revenue in our fourth quarter compared to other quarters due in part to fourth quarter holiday and business demand, and typically generate lower revenue in our first quarter compared to other quarters due in part to less usage of our platform as holiday demand slows down. We have typically experienced lower quarter-over-quarter growth in Mobility trends in the first quarter. For Delivery, we expect to experience seasonal increases in our revenue in the fourth quarter compared to other quarters, although the historical growth of Delivery has masked these seasonal fluctuations. Our growth has made, and may in the future make, seasonal fluctuations difficult to detect. We expect these seasonal trends to become more pronounced over time as our growth slows. Other seasonal trends may develop or these existing seasonal trends may become more extreme, which would contribute to fluctuations in our operating results. In addition to seasonality, our operating results may fluctuate as a result of factors including our ability to attract and retain new platform users, increased competition in the markets in which we operate, our ability to expand our operations in new and existing markets, our ability to maintain an adequate growth rate and effectively manage that growth, our ability to keep pace with technological changes in the industries in which we operate, changes in governmental or other regulations affecting our business, to our brand or reputation, and other risks described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As such, we may not accurately forecast our operating results. We base our expense levels and investment plans on estimates. A significant portion of our expenses and investments are fixed, and we may not be to adjust our spending quickly enough if our revenue is less than expected, resulting in that exceed our expectations. If we are to sustained profits, our prospects would be affected and investors may some or all of the value of their investment.
If our growth slows more significantly than we currently expect, we may not be able to maintain profitability, which would adversely affect our financial results and future prospects.
We believe that our growth depends on a number of factors, including our ability to:
• grow supply and demand on our platform;
• increase existing platform users’ activity on our platform;
• continue to introduce our platform to new markets;
• provide high-quality support to Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers;
• expand our business and increase our market share and category position;
• compete with the products and offerings of, and pricing and incentives offered by, our competitors;
• develop new products, offerings, and technologies;
• keep up with technological developments;
• identify and acquire or invest in businesses, products, offerings, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our platform;
• penetrate suburban and rural areas and increase the number of rides taken on our platform outside metropolitan areas;
• reduce the costs of our Mobility offering to better compete with personal vehicle ownership and usage and other low-cost alternatives like public transportation, which in many cases can be faster or cheaper than any other form of transportation;
• maintain existing local regulations in key markets where we operate;
• enter or expand operations in some of the key countries in which we are currently limited by local regulations, such as Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain; and
• increase positive perception of our brand.
We may not successfully accomplish any of these objectives. A softening of Driver, consumer, merchant, Shipper, or Carrier demand, whether caused by changes in the preferences of such parties, failure to maintain our brand, changes in the U.S. or global economies, pandemics, licensing fees in various jurisdictions, competition, or other factors, may result in decreased revenue or growth and our financial results and future prospects would be adversely impacted. For example, shifts in consumer behavior, including the use of new or emerging technologies, such as AI-enabled platforms and digital assistants, may disintermediate our relationship with consumers by controlling how our products are accessed, presented or selected, which could redirect demand to competitors and adversely affect our demand and growth. In addition, we expect to continue to incur significant expenses, and if we cannot increase our revenue at a faster rate than the increase in our expenses, we will not achieve or maintain profitability.
We generate a significant percentage of our Gross Bookings from trips in large metropolitan areas and trips to and from airports. If our operations in large metropolitan areas or our ability to provide trips to and from airports are negatively affected, our financial results and future prospects would be adversely impacted.
We experience strong competition in large metropolitan areas, which has led us to offer significant Driver incentives and consumer discounts and promotions in these large metropolitan areas. As a result of our geographic concentration, our business and financial results are susceptible to economic, social, weather, and regulatory conditions or other circumstances in each of these large metropolitan areas. Outbreaks of contagious diseases or other viruses could lead to a sustained decline in the desirability of living, working and congregating in metropolitan areas in which we operate. Any short-term or long-term shifts in the travel patterns of consumers away from metropolitan areas, due to health concerns regarding epidemics or pandemics could have an adverse impact on our Mobility Gross Bookings from these areas. An economic downturn, increased competition, or regulatory obstacles in any of these key metropolitan areas would adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results to a much greater degree than would the occurrence of such events in other areas. In addition, any changes to local laws or regulations within these key metropolitan areas that affect our ability to operate or increase our operating expenses in these markets would have an effect on our business. Furthermore, if we are to renew existing licenses or do not receive new licenses in key metropolitan areas where we operate or such licenses are , any to operate in such metropolitan area, as well as the publicity concerning any such or non-renewal, could affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Further, we expect that we will continue to face challenges in penetrating lower-density suburban and rural areas, where our network is smaller and less liquid, the cost of personal vehicle ownership is lower, and personal vehicle ownership is more convenient. If we are not successful in penetrating suburban and rural areas, or if we are unable to operate in certain key metropolitan areas in the future, our ability to serve what we consider to be our total addressable market would be limited, and our business, financial condition, and operating results would suffer.
In 2025, we generated 15% of our Mobility Gross Bookings from trips that either started or were completed at an airport. As a
result of this concentration, our operating results are susceptible to existing regulations and regulatory changes that impact the ability of drivers using our platform to provide trips to and from airports. Sustained declines in air travel have in the past, and may in the future, suppress demand for airport-related Mobility and reduce our Mobility Gross Bookings from airport trips. For example, during the height of the pandemic, travel behavior changed and airline travel slowed, reducing the demand for Mobility to and from airports. Certain airports currently regulate ridesharing within airport boundaries, including by mandating that ridesharing service providers obtain airport-specific licenses, and some airports, particularly those outside the United States, have banned ridesharing operations altogether. Despite such bans, some Drivers continue to provide Mobility services, including trips to and from airports, despite lacking the requisite permits. Such actions may result in the imposition of fines or sanctions, including further bans on our ability to operate within airport boundaries, us or Drivers. Additional on our airport operations, or any permitting requirements or instances of non-compliance by Drivers, would significantly our operations. In addition, if drop-offs or pick-ups of riders become because of airport rules or regulations, or more expensive because of airport-imposed fees, the number of Drivers or consumers could decrease, which would affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. While we have entered into agreements with most major U.S. airports as well as certain airports outside the United States to allow the use of our platform within airport boundaries, we cannot guarantee that we will be to renew such agreements on terms if at all, and we may not be in negotiating similar agreements with airports in all jurisdictions.
Our business depends on retaining and attracting high-quality personnel, and continued attrition, future attrition, or unsuccessful succession planning could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends in large part on our ability to attract and retain high-quality management, operations, engineering, and other personnel who are in high demand, are often subject to competing employment offers, and are attractive recruiting targets for our competitors. Our efforts to attract and retain high-quality personnel may be compounded by intensified restrictions on immigration or the availability of work visas. In addition, challenges related to our historical culture and workplace practices and negative publicity we experience have in the past led to significant attrition and made it more difficult to attract high-quality employees. Our employees worked from home for almost two years in light of the pandemic, and although we have implemented our “return to office” plan, which includes a shift to a hybrid model where employees have flexibility to work from home, a hybrid model may create challenges, including challenges maintaining our corporate culture, productivity and availability of key personnel and other employees necessary to conduct our business, increasing attrition or limiting our ability to attract employees if individuals prefer to work full time at home or in the office. Future related to our culture and workplace practices or additional publicity could lead to further and attracting high-quality employees.
Future leadership transitions and management changes may cause uncertainty in, or a disruption to, our business, and may increase the likelihood of senior management or other employee turnover. The loss of qualified executives and employees, or an inability to attract, retain, and motivate high-quality executives and employees required for the planned expansion of our business, may harm our operating results and impair our ability to grow.
In addition, we depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including our Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi. We have entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Khosrowshahi, which is at-will and has no specific duration.
Our failure to put in place adequate succession plans for senior and key management roles or the failure of key employees to successfully transition into new roles, for example, as a result of reductions in workforce, organizational changes and attrition, could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. The unexpected or abrupt departure of one or more of our key personnel and the failure to effectively transfer knowledge and effect smooth key personnel transitions has had and may in the future have an adverse effect on our business resulting from the loss of such person’s skills, knowledge of our business, and years of industry experience. If we cannot effectively manage leadership transitions and management changes in the future, our reputation and future business prospects could be adversely affected.
To attract and retain key personnel, we use equity incentives, among other measures. These measures may not be sufficient to attract and retain the personnel we require to operate our business effectively. Further, the equity incentives we currently use to attract, retain, and motivate employees may not be as effective as in the past, particularly if the value of the underlying stock does not increase commensurate with expectations or consistent with our historical stock price growth. If we are unable to attract and retain high-quality management and operating personnel, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, we rely heavily on equity as a component of compensation, which may not always align with the Company’s business and financial interests.
We have experienced, and may again experience security or privacy breaches or other unauthorized or improper access to, use of, disclosure of, alteration of or destruction of our proprietary or confidential data, employee data, or platform user data, which could cause loss of revenue, harm to our brand, business disruption, and significant liabilities.
We collect, use, and process a variety of personal data, such as email addresses, mobile phone numbers, profile photos, location information, drivers’ license numbers and Social Security numbers, consumer payment card information, and Driver and merchant bank account information. As such, we are an attractive target of data security attacks by third parties and insiders. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches or improper access to, or use, acquisition, disclosure, alteration or destruction of, any such data
could result in significant liability and a material loss of revenue resulting from the adverse impact on our reputation and brand, a diminished ability to retain or attract new platform users, and disruption to our business. We rely on third-party service providers to host or otherwise process some of our data and that of platform users, and they have experienced, and may again experience, security and privacy incidents. Any failure by such third-party providers to prevent or mitigate security breaches or improper access to, or use, acquisition, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of, such data could have similar adverse consequences for us.
Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade services, or sabotage systems change frequently and are often unrecognizable until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques and implement adequate preventative measures. Our servers, internal systems, and platform may be vulnerable to computer viruses or physical or electronic break-ins that our security measures may not detect. Individuals able to circumvent our security measures, or insiders who violate our policies, may misappropriate confidential, proprietary, or personal information held by or on behalf of us, disrupt our operations, damage our computers, or otherwise damage our business. In addition, we may need to expend significant resources to protect security or mitigate the impact of any such , including potential liability that may not be limited to the amounts covered by our insurance.
Security breaches could also expose us to liability under various laws and regulations across jurisdictions and increase the risk of litigation and governmental investigation. We have been subject to security and privacy incidents in the past and may be again in the future. For example, in September 2022, we experienced a cybersecurity incident where an attacker accessed certain internal corporate systems, tools and data. In October and November of 2016, outside actors downloaded the personal data of approximately 57 million Drivers and consumers worldwide (the “2016 Breach”). The accessed data included the names, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and drivers’ license numbers of approximately 600,000 Drivers, among other information. For further information on this incident, see the risk factor titled “—We face risks related to our collection, use, transfer, disclosure, and other processing of data, which could result in investigations, inquiries, litigation, fines, legislative, and regulatory action, and press about our privacy and data protection practices,” below. As we expand our operations, we may also assume liabilities for experienced by the companies we acquire. For example, in April 2018, Careem publicly and notified relevant regulatory authorities that it had been subject to a data security that allowed access to certain personal information of riders and drivers on its platform, as of January 14, 2018. If Careem becomes subject to liability as a result of this or other data security , or if we to remediate this or any other data security that Careem or we experience, we may face to our brand, business , and significant liabilities. If we to remediate any other data security that we experience, we may face to our brand, business , and significant liabilities. Security and privacy have led to, and may continue to lead to, additional regulatory .
Cyberattacks, including computer malware, ransomware, viruses, denial of service attacks, account takeovers, spamming, phishing and social engineering attacks could harm our reputation, business, and operating results.
We rely heavily on information technology systems across our operations. Our information technology systems, including mobile and online platforms and mobile payment systems, administrative functions such as human resources, payroll, accounting, and internal and external communications, and the information technology systems of our third-party business partners and service providers, contain proprietary or confidential information related to business and personal data, including sensitive personal data, entrusted to us by platform users, employees, and job candidates, and make us a target for threat actors. Cyberattacks that leverage computer malware, ransomware, viruses, denial of service attacks, account takeovers, spamming, phishing, and social engineering have become more prevalent, have occurred on our systems in the past, and may occur on our systems in the future. Cyberthreats are constantly evolving and employing more sophisticated attack techniques. Our detection capabilities may not be sufficient to prevent or detect a sophisticated cyberattacker. Breaches of our facilities, network, applications, identity management solutions or data security have in the past and could in the future disrupt our business or the security of our systems and platforms, impair our ability to protect data, compromise confidential or technical business information our reputation or competitive position, result in theft or of our intellectual property or other assets, subject us to regulatory or legal liability, require us to allocate more resources to technologies, or otherwise affect our reputation, business and operating results. In addition, our hybrid and remote working arrangements may heighten the foregoing risks.
Various other factors may also cause system failures or security breaches, including power outages, catastrophic events, inadequate or ineffective redundancy, issues with upgrading or creating new systems or platforms, flaws in third-party software or services, intentional acts or errors by our employees or third-party service providers, or breaches in the security of these systems or platforms. For example, fraudsters may attempt to induce employees, contractors, or platform users to disclose information to gain access to our data or the data of platform users. If our incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity plans do not resolve these issues in an manner, they could result in impacts to our business operations and our financial results. Because of our prominence, the number of platform users, and the types and volume of personal data on our systems, we may be a particularly target for such attacks. Although we have developed, and continue to develop, systems and processes that are designed to protect our data and that of platform users, and to prevent data , activities on our platform, and security , we cannot guarantee that such measures will provide absolute security. Our efforts on this front may be as a result of, for example, software bugs or other technical ; employee, contractor, or vendor or ; government surveillance; or other that evolve, and we may incur significant costs in protecting or remediating
cyberattacks. Any actual or perceived failure to maintain the performance, reliability, security, and availability of our products, offerings, and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of platform users, shareholders and certain regulators would likely harm our reputation and result in loss of revenue from the adverse impact to our reputation and brand, disruption to our business, decreased ability to attract and retain Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, and subject us to regulatory scrutiny or legal liability.
If we are unable to successfully introduce new or upgraded products, offerings, or features for Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, we may fail to retain and attract such users to our platform and our operating results would be adversely affected.
To continue to retain and attract Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers to our platform, we will need to continue to invest in the development of new products, offerings, and features that add value for Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers and that differentiate us from our competitors. For example, in January 2020, we introduced a number of product changes in California intended to, among other things, provide Drivers with more information about rider destinations, trip distance, and expected fares, display prices more clearly, and allow users to select preferred Drivers, all of which are intended to further strengthen the independence of Drivers in California and protect their ability to work flexibly when using the Uber platform.
Developing and delivering new or upgraded products, offerings, and features is costly, and the success of such new products, offerings, and features depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction, and market acceptance of such products, offerings, and features. Moreover, any such new or upgraded products, offerings, or features may not work as intended or may not provide intended value to platform users. For example, some product changes in California have resulted in, and may continue to result in, reduced demand for rides and reduced supply of Drivers on our platform, Driver dissatisfaction, and adverse impacts on the operation of our platform. If we are unable to continue to develop new or upgraded products, offerings, and features, or if platform users do not perceive value in such new or upgraded products, offerings, and features, platform users may choose not to use our platform, which would adversely affect our operating results.
We track certain operational metrics and our category position with internal systems and tools, and our equity stakes in minority-owned entities with information provided by such minority-owned entities, and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our operational metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We track certain operational metrics, including key metrics such as MAPCs, Trips, Gross Bookings, and our category position, with internal systems and tools, and our equity stakes in minority-owned entities with information provided by such minority-owned entities, that are not independently verified by any third party and which may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties due to differences in sources, methodologies, or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose, or our estimates of our category position. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our products are used across large populations globally. For example, we believe that there are consumers who have multiple accounts, even though we prohibit that in our Terms of Service and implement measures to detect and prevent that behavior. In addition, or with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. If our operating metrics or our estimates of our category position or our equity stakes in our minority-owned entities are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive our operating metrics or estimates of our category position or equity stakes in our minority-owned entities to be accurate, or if we discover material with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly , and our operating and financial results could be affected.
In certain jurisdictions, we allow consumers to pay for rides and meal or grocery deliveries using cash, which raises regulatory, operational, and safety concerns. If we do not successfully manage those concerns, we could become subject to adverse regulatory actions and suffer reputational harm or other adverse financial and accounting consequences.
In certain jurisdictions, including India, Brazil, and Mexico, as well as certain other countries in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, we allow consumers to use cash to pay Drivers the entire fare of rides and cost of meal deliveries (including our service fee from such rides and meal or grocery deliveries). In 2025, cash-paid trips accounted for approximately 6% of our global Gross Bookings. This percentage may increase in the future. The number of countries and product types where cash is accepted is expected to continue to increase. The use of cash in connection with our technology raises regulatory, operational, and safety concerns. For example, many jurisdictions have specific regulations regarding the use of cash for ridesharing and certain jurisdictions prohibit the use of cash for ridesharing. Failure to comply with these regulations could result in the imposition of significant fines and penalties and could result in a regulator requiring that we suspend operations in those jurisdictions. In addition to these regulatory concerns, the use of cash with our Mobility products and Delivery offering can increase safety and security risks for Drivers and riders, including potential robbery, assault, or fatal attacks, and other acts. In certain jurisdictions such as Brazil, safety resulting in robberies and , fatal attacks on Drivers while using our platform have been reported.
If we are not able to adequately address any of these concerns, we could suffer significant reputational harm, which could adversely impact our business. Expanding cash payments to additional cities or countries could amplify these risks.
In addition, establishing the proper infrastructure to ensure that we receive the correct service fee on cash trips is complex, and has in the past meant and may continue to mean that we cannot collect the entire service fee for certain of our cash-based trips. We have created systems for Drivers to collect and deposit the cash received for cash-based trips and deliveries, as well as systems for us to collect, deposit, and properly account for the cash received, some of which are not always effective, convenient, or widely-adopted by Drivers. Creating, maintaining, and improving these systems requires significant effort and resources, and we cannot guarantee these systems will be effective in collecting amounts due to us. Further, operating a business that uses cash raises compliance risks with respect to a variety of rules and regulations, including anti-money laundering laws. If Drivers fail to pay us under the terms of our agreements or if our collection systems fail, we may be adversely affected by both the inability to collect amounts due and the cost of enforcing the terms of our contracts, including . Such collection and enforcement costs, along with any costs associated with a to comply with applicable rules and regulations, could, in the aggregate, impact our financial performance.
Loss or material modification of our payment acceptance privileges could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
In 2025, more than 75% of our Gross Bookings were paid by credit card, debit card or digital wallet. As such, the loss of our payment acceptance privileges would significantly limit our business model. We are required by our payment processors to comply with payment card network operating rules, including the Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) and Data Security Standard (the “Standard”). The Standard is a comprehensive set of requirements for enhancing payment account data security developed by the PCI Security Standards Council to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures. Our failure to comply with the Standard and other network operating rules could result in fines or restrictions on our ability to accept payment cards. Under certain circumstances specified in the payment card network rules, we may be required to submit to periodic audits, self-assessments, or other assessments of our compliance with the Standard. Such activities may reveal that we have failed to comply with the Standard. If an audit, self- assessment, or other test determines that we need to take steps to remediate any deficiencies, such remediation efforts may distract our management team and require us to undertake and time consuming remediation efforts. In addition, even if we comply with the Standard, there is no assurance that we will be protected from a security . Moreover, the payment card networks could adopt new operating rules or interpret existing rules that we or our processors might find or even to follow, or to implement. In addition to of network rules, including the Standard, any to maintain relationships with the payment card networks could impact our ability to receive incentives from them, could increase our costs, or could otherwise our business. The of our payment acceptance privileges for any one of these reasons, or the significant modification of the terms under which we obtain payment acceptance privileges, may have an effect on our business, revenue, and operating results.
Our platform is highly technical, and any undetected errors could adversely affect our business.
Our platform is a complex system composed of many interoperating components and incorporates software that is highly complex. Our business is dependent upon our ability to prevent system interruption on our platform. Our software, including open source software that is incorporated into our code, may now or in the future contain undetected errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Some errors in our software code may only be discovered after the code has been released. Bugs in our software, third-party software including open source software that is incorporated into our code, misconfigurations of our systems, and unintended interactions between systems could result in our failure to comply with certain federal, state, or foreign reporting obligations, or could cause downtime that would impact the availability of our service to platform users. We have from time to time found defects or errors in our system and may discover additional defects in the future that could result in platform or system . In addition, we have experienced on our platform due to circumstances within our control, such as due to software . We rely on co-located data centers for the operation of our platform. If our co-located data centers , our platform users may experience down time. If sustained or repeated, any of these could reduce the of our platform to platform users. In addition, our release of new software in the past has caused, and may in the future cause, in the availability or functionality of our platform. Any , bugs, or discovered in our code or systems after release could result in an in the availability of our platform or a experience for Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers, and could also result in publicity and media coverage, to our reputation, of platform users, of revenue or liability for , regulatory inquiries, or other proceedings, any of which could affect our business and financial results.
Our growing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning may present additional risks, including risks associated with algorithm development or use, the tools and data sets used, and/or a complex, developing regulatory environment.
Our growing use of AI (including machine learning) in our business and offerings presents additional risks. This technology presents a number of risks inherent in its use. AI algorithms or automated decision-making or processing of data may be flawed and datasets may be insufficient or contain inaccurate or biased information, which can create inaccurate or discriminatory outcomes. AI tools and algorithms may use third-party AI with unclear intellectual property rights or interests. Intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright, of generative and other AI output, have not been fully interpreted by courts or regulations. Europe,
the United States and other countries are enacting or may consider comprehensive legal compliance frameworks specifically for AI, which is a trend that may increase now that European lawmakers have passed the first such framework, the European Artificial Intelligence Act (“AI Act”), which came into effect in August 2024. Further, more specific AI-related laws and regulations have been enacted, and are expected to continue to be enacted, around the world. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with such requirements could have an adverse impact on our business. AI use or management by us or others, including certain decisions based (whether partially or solely) on automated processing or profiling, inappropriate or controversial data practices, or insufficient disclosures regarding machine learning and algorithms or AI-generated content, have impaired and could impair the acceptance of AI solutions or subject us to lawsuits, regulatory investigations or other harm, such as impacts to the value of our intellectual property or our brand. These and other could also the decisions, predictions or analysis AI applications produce, or lead to bias and discrimination, us to competitive , legal liability, and brand or reputational . The rapid evolution of AI may require us to allocate additional resources to help implement AI ethically in order to minimize or impacts, and may also require us to make additional investments in the development of proprietary datasets, machine learning models or other systems, which may be .
We are subject to climate risks, including physical and transitional risks, and if we are unable to manage such risks, our business may be adversely impacted.
We face climate-related physical and transition risks, which include risks associated with market shifts toward more sustainable or renewable forms of energy and energy conservation. In the context of our business, this includes market shifts toward electric vehicles (“EVs”), investing in the transition to operating high-power fast-charging infrastructure for autonomous vehicles, and lower carbon business models, which carry a potential of increasing energy costs and emissions, despite advancing fleet electrification. If we fail, or are perceived to fail, to keep up with these market shifts, including changes in consumer preferences and evolving stakeholder expectations, we may lose customers or face criticism or public scrutiny, from the media, or our stakeholders or others, and our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Physical climate risks include risks related to extreme weather events or natural disasters, and include extreme storms and temperatures, flooding, droughts, freezes, wildfires, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as chronic changes such as sea-level rise. Climate-related events, including the increasing frequency, and duration of extreme weather events and their impact on infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere, have the potential to our business, our third-party suppliers, and the business of merchants, Shippers, Carriers and Drivers using our platform, and may cause us to experience higher and additional costs to maintain or resume operations. While we and third parties may take various actions to mitigate business risks associated with climate-related events, this may require incurring substantial costs and may not be , due to, among other things, the uncertainty associated with the longer-term projections associated with managing climate risks. Additionally, we are or may become subject to emerging environmental and social laws and regulations, including climate policies and regulations adopted in California, including for example, in May 2021 requiring 90% of vehicle miles traveled by rideshare fleets in California to have been in zero emission vehicles by 2030, with interim targets beginning in 2023. Certain jurisdictions have also developed and implemented rules to address the environmental impact of rideshare, and additional jurisdictions may consider similar rules and regulations. We are also subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which was adopted in the European Union in December 2022. In addition, Drivers may be subject to climate-related policies that indirectly impact our business, such as the Congestion Charge Zone and Ultra Low Emission Zone schemes adopted in London that impose fees on drivers that do not meet specified emissions standards, which may impact our ability to attract and maintain Drivers on our platform, and to the extent we experience Driver supply constraints in a given market, we may need to increase Driver incentives.
Additional regulations may require us to incur significant additional costs to comply, including increased costs related to reporting, the implementation of extensive internal controls processes and procedures regarding matters that have not been subject to such levels of controls in the past, and impose increased oversight obligations on our management and board of directors, as well as require us to hire third party experts. Additional regulatory requirements may also end up exposing us to increased activism, litigation and enforcement. All of these risks may also impact our suppliers, business partners or customers, which may impact our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Increased attention to, and evolving expectations regarding environmental and social matters may adversely impact our business, reputation and liabilities, including in the context of certain goals we have announced.
Companies across all industries and around the globe are facing increasing scrutiny relating to their environmental and social initiatives and activities by investors, lenders, regulators, customers, employees and other stakeholders. We have taken, and may continue to take, certain environmental and social actions, including those that relate to electrification and waste reduction goals and other social matters. The increased focus on environmental and social initiatives and evolving stakeholder expectations may present operational, regulatory, reputational, financial, legal, and other risks and impacts, which could have an adverse impact on our business, including on our reputation and stock price. For example, investors and lenders may reconsider their capital investment allocation as a result of their assessment of our environmental and social practices, which may impact our access to capital.
Our ability to meet our electrification and waste reduction related goals is dependent on many external factors, including such factors as rapidly changing regulatory developments, governmental or political shifts, policies and related interpretation, action from policymakers and the wider industry, advances in technology such as battery storage, industry-wide investment, sufficient packaging
alternatives, as well as the availability, cost and accessibility of EVs to Drivers, and the availability of critical EV charging infrastructure that can be efficiently accessed by Drivers. All of our electrification and waste reduction related goals are intentionally challenging, and are therefore subject to risks, uncertainties, third party information or action, and conditions, many of which are outside of our control. Progressing towards our electrification and waste reduction related goals requires us to invest significant effort, resources, and management time, and circumstances may arise, including those beyond our control, that may require us to revise our timelines and/or goals. For example, while progress has been made, we did not achieve some of our 2025 goals, and our 2030 goals will remain out of reach without more aggressive action from policymakers and the wider industry. There can be no assurances that our goals will be achieved in the manner we currently intend or at all, and any failure or perceived failure to meet regulatory requirements related to climate-related events, or to meet our stated electrification and waste reduction related goals on the timeframe we announced, or at all, could have an impact on our costs and ability to operate, result in , as well as our brand, reputation, and consequently, our business.
In addition, our electrification and waste reduction related goals, are also subject to certain assumptions, estimations, methodologies, and third-party information that we believed to be reasonable at the time, but which may subsequently be determined to be erroneous, insufficient, incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise misaligned with stakeholder expectations. Any failure or perceived failure to satisfy evolving stakeholder expectations regarding our electrification and waste reduction related goals and environmental and social reporting may harm our reputation and impact relationships with certain investors and other stakeholders.
Furthermore, there are efforts by some stakeholders to reduce or limit companies’ efforts on certain environmental, social and governance related matters. Both advocates and opponents are increasingly resorting to a range of activism forms, including media campaigns, reputational harm, investigations and litigation, to advance their perspectives. To the extent we are subject to such activism, and we have been in the past, it may require us to incur costs or otherwise adversely impact our business. This and other stakeholder expectations will likely lead to increased compliance costs as well as scrutiny that could heighten all of the risks identified above and other similar risks. In addition, negative perception of our environmental and social related initiatives, whether due to perceived over- or under-pursuit of such initiatives, may result in issues hiring or retaining employees, as well as potential investigations, regulatory scrutiny, litigation or other adverse impacts to our business.
General Economic Risks
Occurrence of a catastrophic event, including but not limited to disease, a weather event, war, or terrorist attack, could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operation.
Outbreaks of contagious disease and the impact of actions to mitigate such disease or pandemic, have adversely impacted and could in the future adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. We also face risks related to health epidemics, outbreaks of contagious disease, and other adverse health developments. For example, the pandemic and responses thereto had an adverse impact on our business and operations, including, for example, by reducing the demand for our Mobility offerings globally, and affecting travel behavior and demand, as well as impacting Driver supply constraints. As another example, during the pandemic, to support social distancing, we temporarily suspended our shared rides offering globally.
We cannot predict the impact a catastrophic event, including disease, weather event, war or terrorist attack will have on our business, end-users’ behaviors, business partners and third-party vendors, and we may be adversely impacted as a result of the adverse impact our business partners and third-party vendors suffer. For example, concerns over the economic impact of the pandemic caused extreme volatility in financial markets, which adversely impacted our stock price and our ability to access capital markets, and any future pandemics or other catastrophic events may have a similar impact. In addition, the broader consequences of conflicts in the Middle East and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which may include additional international sanctions, embargoes, regional instability, and geopolitical shifts, increased tensions between the United States and countries in which we operate, and the extent of the ’s effect on the global economy, cannot be predicted. Any of these risks could materially affect our business or the value of our assets, which could have an effect on our business, financial condition, operating results, or the trading price of our common stock. The of a bank, or other conditions impacting financial institutions at which we maintain balances, could impact our liquidity and financial performance. There can be no assurance that our deposits in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation limits will be backstopped by the United States, or that any bank or financial institution with which we do business will be to obtain needed liquidity from other banks, government institutions or by acquisition in the event of a or liquidity . To the extent any of the foregoing or other event affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section. Any of the foregoing factors, or other cascading effects that are not foreseeable, could impact our business, financial performance and condition, and results of operations.
The impact of economic conditions, including the resulting effect on discretionary consumer spending, may harm our business and operating results.
Our performance is subject to economic conditions and their impact on levels of discretionary consumer spending. Some of the factors that have an impact on discretionary consumer spending include general economic conditions, unemployment, consumer debt, reductions in net worth, residential real estate and mortgage markets, taxation, energy prices, interest rates, consumer confidence, tariffs, and other macroeconomic factors. A deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions, including slower growth or recession,
inflation and higher interest rates, changes in labor market dynamics, or decreases in consumer spending power may harm our results of operations. For example, inflation has increased and is expected to increase our insurance costs. Consumer preferences tend to shift to lower-cost alternatives during recessionary periods and other periods in which disposable income is adversely affected. In such circumstances, consumers may choose to use one of our lower price-point products over a higher Gross Bookings per Trip offering, may choose to forgo our offerings for lower-cost personal vehicle or public transportation alternatives, or may reduce total miles traveled as economic activity decreases. Such a shift in consumer behavior may reduce our network liquidity and may harm our business, financial condition, and operating results. Likewise, small businesses that do not have substantial resources, including many of the merchants in our network, tend to be more adversely affected by poor economic conditions than large businesses. Further, because spending for food purchases from merchants is generally considered discretionary, any decline in consumer spending may have a disproportionate effect on our Delivery offering. If spending at many of the merchants in our network , or if a significant number of these merchants go out of business, consumers may be less likely to use our products and offerings, which could our business and operating results. Alternatively, if economic conditions , it could lead to Drivers obtaining additional or alternative for work, which could impact the number of Drivers on our platform, and thereby reduce our network liquidity.
Increases in fuel, food, labor, energy, and other costs due to inflation and other factors could adversely affect our operating results.
Factors such as inflation, increased fuel prices, and increased vehicle purchase, rental, insurance, or maintenance costs, including increased prices of new and used vehicle parts as a result of recent tariffs, global supply chain challenges, and increased fuel prices as result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, have and may continue to increase the costs incurred by Drivers and Carriers when providing services on our platform. Similarly, factors such as inflation, increased food costs, increased labor and employee benefit costs, increased rental costs, and increased energy costs may increase merchant operating costs, particularly in certain international markets, such as Egypt. Many of the factors affecting Driver, merchant, and Carrier costs are beyond the control of these parties. In many cases, these increased costs may cause Drivers and Carriers to spend less time providing services on our platform or to seek alternative sources of income. Likewise, these increased costs may cause merchants to pass costs on to consumers by increasing prices, which would likely cause order volume to decline, may cause merchants to cease operations altogether, or may cause Carriers to pass costs on to Shippers, which may cause shipments on our platform to . A decreased supply of Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, or Carriers on our platform would decrease our network liquidity, which could our business and operating results.
Depen dencies on Third Parties
The successful operation of our business depends upon the performance and reliability of Internet, mobile, and other infrastructures that are not under our control.
Our business depends on the performance and reliability of Internet, mobile, and other infrastructures that are not under our control. Disruptions in Internet infrastructure or GPS signals or the failure of telecommunications network operators to provide us with the bandwidth we need to provide our products and offerings have interfered, and could continue to interfere with the speed and availability of our platform. If our platform is unavailable when platform users attempt to access it, or if our platform does not load as quickly as platform users expect, platform users may not return to our platform as often in the future, or at all, and may use our competitors’ products or offerings more often. In addition, we have no control over the costs of the services provided by national telecommunications operators. If mobile Internet access fees or other charges to Internet users increase, consumer traffic may decrease, which may in turn cause our revenue to significantly decrease.
Our business depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of mobile communications systems. The occurrence of an unanticipated problem, such as a power outage, telecommunications delay or failure, security breach, or computer virus could result in delays or interruptions to our products, offerings, and platform, as well as business interruptions for us and platform users. Furthermore, foreign governments may leverage their ability to shut down directed services, and local governments may shut down our platform at the routing level. Any of these events could damage our reputation, significantly disrupt our operations, and subject us to liability, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. We have invested significant resources to develop new products to mitigate the impact of potential to mobile communications systems, which can be used by consumers in territories where mobile communications systems are less . However, these products may ultimately be .
We rely on third parties maintaining open marketplaces to distribute our platform and to provide the software we use in certain of our products and offerings. If such third parties interfere with the distribution of our products or offerings or with our use of such software, our business would be adversely affected.
Our platform relies on third parties maintaining open marketplaces, including the Apple App Store and Google Play, which make applications available for download. We cannot assure you that the marketplaces through which we distribute our platform will maintain their current structures or that such marketplaces will not charge us fees to list our applications for download. For example, Apple Inc. requires that iOS apps obtain users’ permission to track their activities across third-party apps and websites. If iOS users do not grant us such permission, our ability to target those users for advertisements and to measure the effectiveness of such
advertisements may be adversely affected, which could decrease the effectiveness of our advertising, and increase our costs to acquire and engage users on our platform. We rely upon certain third parties to provide software for our products and offerings, including Google Maps for the mapping function that is critical to the functionality of our platform. We do not believe that an alternative mapping solution exists that can provide the global functionality that we require to offer our platform in all of the markets in which we operate. We do not control all mapping functions employed by our platform or Drivers using our platform, and it is possible that such mapping functions may not be reliable. If such third parties cease to provide access to the third-party software that we and Drivers use, do not provide access to such software on terms that we believe to be attractive or reasonable, or do not provide us with the most current version of such software, we may be required to seek comparable software from other sources, which may be more expensive or inferior, or may not be available at all, any of which would adversely affect our business.
Our business depends upon the interoperability of our platform across devices, operating systems, and third-party applications that we do not control.
One of the most important features of our platform is its broad interoperability with a range of devices, operating systems, and third-party applications. Our platform is accessible from the web and from devices running various operating systems such as iOS and Android. We depend on the accessibility of our platform across these third-party operating systems and applications that we do not control. Moreover, third-party services and products are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to modify our platform to assure its compatibility with that of other third parties following development changes. The loss of interoperability, whether due to actions of third parties or otherwise, could adversely affect our business.
We rely on third parties for elements of the payment processing infrastructure underlying our platform. If these third-party elements become unavailable or unavailable on favorable terms, our business could be adversely affected.
The convenient payment mechanisms provided by our platform are key factors contributing to the development of our business. We rely on third parties for elements of our payment-processing infrastructure to complete consumer transactions and remit payments to Drivers, merchants, and Carriers using our platform, and these third parties may refuse to renew our agreements with them on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us on acceptable terms or at all, our business may be disrupted. For certain payment methods, including credit, debit cards, and digital wallets, we generally pay interchange fees and other processing and gateway fees, and such fees result in significant costs. In addition, online payment providers are under continued pressure to pay increased fees to banks to process funds, and there is no assurance that such online payment providers will not pass any increased costs on to merchant partners, including us. If these fees increase over time, our operating costs will increase, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
In addition, system failures have at times prevented us from making payments to Drivers in accordance with our typical timelines and processes, and have caused substantial Driver dissatisfaction and generated a significant number of Driver complaints. Future failures of the payment processing infrastructure underlying our platform could cause Drivers to lose trust in our payment operations and could cause them to instead use our competitors’ platforms. If the quality or convenience of our payment processing infrastructure declines as a result of these limitations or for any other reason, the attractiveness of our business to Drivers, merchants, and Carriers could be adversely affected. If we are forced to migrate to other third-party payment service providers for any reason, the transition would require significant time and management resources, and may not be as effective, efficient, or well-received by platform users.
We currently rely on a small number of third-party service providers to host a significant portion of our platform, and any interruptions or delays in services from these third parties could impair the delivery of our products and offerings and harm our business.
We use a combination of third-party cloud computing services and co-located data centers in the United States and abroad. We do not control the physical operation of any of the co-located data centers we use or the operations of our third-party service providers. These third-party operations and co-located data centers may experience break-ins, computer viruses, denial-of-service attacks, sabotage, acts of vandalism, and other misconduct. These facilities may also be vulnerable to damage or interruption from power loss, telecommunications failures, fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and similar events. Our systems do not provide complete redundancy of data storage or processing, and as a result, the occurrence of any such event, a decision by our third-party service providers to close our co-located data centers without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems may result in our to serve data reliably or require us to migrate our data to either a new on-premise data center or cloud computing service. This could be time consuming and and may result in the of data, any of which could significantly the provision of our products and offerings and our reputation and brand. We may not be to switch to another cloud or data center provider in the event of any or to the services we use, and even if we do, other cloud and data center providers are subject to the same risks. Additionally, our co-located data center facility agreements are of limited durations, and our co-located data center facilities have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are to renew our agreements with these facilities on commercially reasonable terms, we may experience in the provision of our products and offerings until an agreement with another co-located data center is arranged. in the delivery of our products and offerings may reduce our revenue, cause Drivers, merchants, and Carriers to stop offering their services through our platform, and reduce use of our platform by consumers and Shippers. Our business and operating results may be if current and potential Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers believe our platform is . In addition, if we are to scale our data
storage and computational capacity sufficiently or on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to innovate and introduce new products on our platform may be delayed or compromised, which would have an adverse effect on our growth and business.
Our use of third-party open source software could adversely affect our ability to offer our products and offerings and subjects us to possible litigation.
We use third-party open source software in connection with the development of our platform. From time to time, companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open source software and their compliance with the terms of the applicable open source license. We may be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software, or claiming non-compliance with the applicable open source licensing terms. Some open source licenses require end-users who distribute or make available across a network software and services that include open source software to make available all or part of such software, which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code. While we employ practices designed to monitor our compliance with the licenses of third-party open source software and protect our valuable proprietary source code, we have not run a complete open source license review and may inadvertently use third-party open source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the applicable terms of such license, including for of intellectual property rights or for of contract. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of open-source software license types, almost none of which have been tested in a court of law, resulting in a dearth of guidance regarding the proper legal interpretation of such licenses. If we were to receive a claim of non-compliance with the terms of any of our open source licenses, we may be required to publicly release certain portions of our proprietary source code or expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software.
In addition, the use of third-party open source software typically exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software because open-source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our platform. Additionally, because any software source code that we make available under an open source license or that we contribute to existing open source projects becomes publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights in such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we would be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of the foregoing could be harmful to our business, financial condition, or operating results and could help our competitors develop products and offerings that are similar to or better than ours.
Financing and Transactional Risks
We will require additional capital to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on reasonable terms or at all.
To continue to effectively compete, we will require additional funds to support the growth of our business and allow us to invest in new products, offerings, and markets. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders may suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue may have rights, preferences, and privileges superior to those of existing stockholders. Certain of our existing debt instruments contain, and any debt financing we secure in the future could contain, restrictive covenants relating to our ability to incur additional indebtedness and other financial and operational matters that make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital with which to pursue business opportunities. For example, our existing debt instruments contain significant restrictions on our ability to incur additional secured indebtedness. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on favorable terms, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when required, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business and competition may be significantly limited.
We have incurred a significant amount of debt and may in the future incur additional indebtedness. Our payment obligations under such indebtedness may limit the funds available to us, and the terms of our debt agreements may restrict our flexibility in operating our business.
As of December 31, 2025, we had total outstanding indebtedness of $10.6 billion aggregate principal amount. In addition, up to approximately $128 million of Careem Convertible Notes remain subject to future issuance to Careem stockholders as of December 31, 2025. Subject to the limitations in the terms of our existing and future indebtedness, we and our subsidiaries may incur additional debt, secure existing or future debt, or refinance our debt. In particular, we may need to incur additional debt to finance the purchase of autonomous vehicles or infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles, and such financing may not be available to us on attractive terms or at all.
We may be required to use a substantial portion of our cash flows from operations to pay interest and principal on our indebtedness. Such payments will reduce the funds available to us for working capital, capital expenditures, and other corporate purposes and limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, expansion plans, and other investments, which may in turn limit our ability to implement our business strategy, heighten our vulnerability to downturns in our business, the industry, or in the general economy, limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry, and prevent us from taking advantage of business opportunities as they arise. We cannot assure you that our business will
generate sufficient cash flow from operations or that future financing will be available to us in amounts sufficient to enable us to make required and timely payments on our indebtedness, or to fund our operations. To date, we have used a substantial amount of cash for operating activities, and we cannot assure you when we will begin to generate cash from operating activities in amounts sufficient to cover our debt service obligations.
In addition, under certain of our existing debt instruments, we and certain of our subsidiaries are subject to limitations regarding our business and operations, including limitations on incurring additional indebtedness and liens, limitations on certain consolidations, mergers, and sales of assets, and restrictions on the payment of dividends or distributions. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could involve additional restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions or divestitures. Any default under our debt arrangements could require that we repay our loans immediately, and may limit our ability to obtain additional financing, which in turn may have an adverse effect on our cash flows and liquidity.
In addition, we are exposed to interest rate risk related to some of our indebtedness, which is discussed in greater detail under the section titled “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk - Interest Rate Risk.”
We may have exposure to materially greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
The tax laws applicable to our global business activities are subject to uncertainty and can be interpreted differently by different companies. For example, we may become subject to sales tax rates in certain jurisdictions that are significantly greater than the rates we currently pay in those jurisdictions. Like many other multinational corporations, we are subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign jurisdictions and have structured our operations to reduce our effective tax rate. Currently, certain jurisdictions are investigating our compliance with tax rules. If it is determined that we are not compliant with such rules, we could owe additional taxes.
Certain jurisdictions, including Australia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UK and other countries, require that we pay any assessed taxes prior to being allowed to contest or litigate the applicability of tax assessments in those jurisdictions. These amounts could materially adversely impact our liquidity while those matters are being litigated. This prepayment of contested taxes is referred to as “pay-to-play.” Payment of these amounts is not an admission that we believe we are subject to such taxes; even when such payments are made, we continue to defend our positions vigorously. If we prevail in the proceedings for which a pay-to-play payment was made, the jurisdiction collecting the payment will be required to repay such amounts and also may be required to pay interest.
Additionally, the taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate have in the past, and may in the future, examine or challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our financial position and operating results. Furthermore, our future income taxes could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions that have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates, or changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles. We are subject to regular review and audit by both U.S. federal and state tax authorities, as well as foreign tax authorities, and currently face numerous audits in the United States and abroad. Any adverse outcome of such reviews and audits could have an adverse effect on our financial position and operating results. In addition, the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by our management, and we have engaged in many transactions for which the ultimate tax determination remains uncertain. The ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made. Our tax positions or tax returns are subject to change, and therefore we cannot accurately predict whether we may incur material additional tax liabilities in the future, which could impact our financial position. In addition, in connection with any planned or future acquisitions, we may acquire businesses that have differing licenses and other arrangements that may be by tax authorities for not being at arm’s-length or that are otherwise potentially less tax than our licenses and arrangements. Any subsequent integration or continued operation of such acquired businesses may result in an increased tax rate in certain jurisdictions or potential indirect tax costs, which could result in us incurring additional tax liabilities or having to establish a reserve in our consolidated financial statements, and could affect our financial results.
Changes in global and U.S. tax legislation may adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows.
We are a U.S.-based multinational company subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. We are unable to predict what other global or U.S. tax reforms may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effects such future changes would have on our business. Any such changes in tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices in the jurisdictions in which we operate could increase the estimated tax liability that we have expensed to date and paid or accrued on our balance sheet; affect our financial position, future operating results, cash flows, and effective tax rates where we have operations; reduce post-tax returns to our stockholders; and increase the complexity, burden, and cost of tax compliance. We could become subject to new or additional digital services taxes in one or more jurisdictions where we operate. The governments of countries in which we operate and other governmental bodies could make unprecedented assertions about how taxation is determined in their jurisdictions that are contrary to the way in which we have interpreted and historically applied the rules and regulations described above in our income tax returns filed in such jurisdictions. New laws could significantly increase our tax obligations in the countries in which we do business or require us to change the manner in which we operate our business. As a result of the large and expanding scale of our international business activities, many of these changes to the taxation of our activities could increase our worldwide tax rate and our financial position, operating
results, and cash flows.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of December 31, 2025, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of $43 million that begin to expire in 2031 and $4.1 billion that have an unlimited carryover period. As of December 31, 2025, we had U.S. state net operating loss carryforwards of $7.0 billion, including $6.0 billion with limited carryforward periods, an immaterial portion of which will expire beginning with the 2025 tax year if not utilized. The remaining $1.0 billion have an unlimited carryover period. As of December 31, 2025, we had foreign net operating loss carryforwards of $20.3 billion, including $961 million with limited carryforward periods, an immaterial portion of which will expire beginning with the 2025 tax year if not utilized. The remaining $19.3 billion have an unlimited carryover period. Realization of these net operating loss carryforwards depends on our future taxable income, and there is a risk that our existing carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the IRC, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-ownership change U.S. federal net operating carryforwards and other pre-ownership change U.S. federal tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-ownership change income may be limited. Many U.S. states follow similar rules for restricting use of tax attributes after an ownership change. We may experience ownership changes in the future because of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-ownership change net operating carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset U.S. federal and state taxable income may be subject to , which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
Because we conduct a significant and may conduct a growing portion of our business in currencies other than the U.S. dollar but report our consolidated financial results in U.S. dollars, we face exposure to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. As exchange rates vary, revenue, cost of revenue, exclusive of depreciation and amortization, operating expenses, other income and expense, and assets and liabilities, when translated, may also vary materially and thus affect our overall financial results. Although we have entered into and may in the future, enter into hedging arrangements to manage foreign currency translation, such activity may not completely eliminate fluctuations in our operating results due to currency exchange rate changes. Hedging arrangements are inherently risky, and we have limited experience establishing hedging programs, which could expose us to additional risks that could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
If we are unable to successfully identify, acquire and integrate suitable businesses, our operating results and prospects could be harmed, and any businesses we acquire may not perform as expected or be effectively integrated.
As part of our business strategy, we have entered into, and expect to continue to enter into, agreements to acquire companies, form joint ventures, divest portions or aspects of our business, sell minority stakes in portions or aspects of our business, and acquire complementary companies or technologies. Competition within our industry for acquisitions of businesses, technologies, and assets is intense. As such, even if we are able to identify a target for acquisition, we may not be able to complete the acquisition on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to receive approval from the applicable competition authorities, or such target may be acquired by another company, including one of our competitors.
Further, negotiations for potential acquisitions or other transactions may result in the diversion of our management’s time and significant out-of-pocket costs. We may expend significant cash or incur substantial debt to finance such acquisitions, and such indebtedness may restrict our business or require the use of available cash to make interest and principal payments. In addition, we may finance or otherwise complete acquisitions by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, which may result in dilution to our stockholders, or if such convertible debt securities are not converted, significant cash outlays. If we fail to evaluate and execute acquisitions or other strategic transactions successfully or fail to successfully address any of these risks, our business, financial condition, and operating results may be harmed.
In addition, any businesses we acquire may not perform as well as we expect. Failure to manage and successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies, including managing internal controls and any privacy, data security or AI risks associated with such acquisitions, may harm our operating results and expansion prospects. For example, Careem has historically shared certain user data with certain government authorities, which conflicts with our global policies regarding data use, sharing, and ownership. We have maintained our data use, sharing, and ownership practices for both our business and Careem’s business, and doing so may cause our relationships with government authorities in certain jurisdictions to suffer, and may result in such government authorities assessing fines or penalties against us. The process of integrating an acquired company, business, or technology or acquired personnel into our company is subject to various risks and challenges, including:
• diverting management time and focus from operating our business to acquisition integration;
• disrupting our ongoing business operations;
• platform user acceptance of the acquired company’s offerings;
• implementing or remediating the controls, procedures, and policies of the acquired company;
• integrating the acquired business onto our systems and ensuring the acquired business meets our financial reporting requirements and timelines;
• retaining and integrating acquired employees, including aligning incentives between acquired employees and existing employees, managing cultural differences between acquired businesses and our business, as well as managing costs associated with eliminating redundancies or transferring employees on acceptable terms with minimal business disruption;
• maintaining important business relationships and contracts of the acquired business;
• integrating the brand identity of an acquired company with our own;
• integrating companies that have significant operations or that develop products where we do not have prior experience;
• liability for pre-acquisition activities of the acquired company;
• litigation or other claims or liabilities arising in connection with the acquisition or the acquired company; and
• impairment charges associated with goodwill, long-lived assets, investments, and other acquired intangible assets.
We have in the past and may in the future implement integration structures that do not fully integrate an acquired company’s operating functions. Such structures may delay the efficiencies that we expect to gain from the acquisition and our brand and reputation could be impacted by any damage or reputational harm to the acquired company’s brand.
In addition, our acquisition of Careem has increased our risks under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and other similar laws outside the United States. Our existing and planned safeguards, including training and compliance programs to discourage corrupt practices by such parties, may not prove effective, and such parties may engage in conduct for which we could be held responsible.
We may not receive a favorable return on investment for prior or future business combinations, and we cannot predict whether these transactions will be accretive to the value of our common stock. It is also possible that acquisitions, combinations, divestitures, joint ventures, or other strategic transactions we announce could be viewed negatively by the press, investors, platform users, or regulators, any or all of which may adversely affect our reputation and our business. Any of these factors may adversely affect our ability to consummate a transaction, our financial condition, and our operating results.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value.
Although our board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program, the program does not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares of our common stock. The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases are determined at the discretion of our management, depending on market conditions and other factors. We cannot guarantee that the program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value, and it may not prove to be the best use of our cash. The program could affect the trading price of our stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of this program may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. In addition, this program will reduce our cash reserves.
Legal and Regulatory Risks Related to Our Business
We may continue to be blocked from or limited in providing or operating our products and offerings in certain jurisdictions, and may be required to modify our business model in those jurisdictions as a result.
In certain jurisdictions, including Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain, our ridesharing business model has been blocked, capped, or suspended, or we have been required to change our business model, due primarily to laws and significant regulatory restrictions in such jurisdictions. In some cases, we have applied for and obtained licenses or permits to operate and must continue to comply with the license or permit requirements or risk revocation. In addition, we may not be able to maintain or renew any such license or permit. We cannot predict whether future regulatory decisions or legislation in other jurisdictions may embolden or encourage other authorities to take similar actions even where we are operating according to the terms of an existing license or permit.
Traditional taxicab and car service operators in various jurisdictions in the United States and abroad continue to lobby legislators and regulators to block our Mobility products or to require us to comply with regulatory, insurance, record-keeping, licensing, and other requirements to which taxicab and car services are subject. For example, in January 2019, we suspended our Mobility products in Barcelona after the regional government enacted regulations mandating minimum wait times before riders could be picked up by ridesharing drivers; in March 2021, we returned to Barcelona via taxis only. In December 2018, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission implemented a per-mile and per-minute minimum trip payment formula, designed to establish a minimum pay standard, for drivers providing for-hire services in New York City, such as those provided by Drivers on our platform. These minimum rates took effect in February 2019. Since implementation, these regulations have had an adverse impact on our financial performance in New York City and may continue to do so in the future. In August 2018, the New York City Council voted to approve various measures to further regulate our business, including driver earning rules, licensing requirements, and a one-year freeze on new for-hire vehicle licenses for ridesharing services like those enabled via our platform; the freeze on for-hire vehicle licenses remains.
Additionally, in November 2019, a ballot measure to impose a surcharge on ridesharing trips in San Francisco was passed by voters in San Francisco and such surcharge took effect on January 1, 2020. Also in January 2020, a new tax went into effect in Chicago that imposes a surcharge of up to $3 per ridesharing trip taken in Chicago. In addition, in March 2022, a Washington state bill was signed into law establishing a minimum pay standard for drivers providing services on our platform, and other jurisdictions have in the past considered or may consider regulations which would implement minimum wage requirements or permit drivers to negotiate for minimum wages while providing services on our platform. Similar legislative or regulatory initiatives are being considered or have been enacted in countries outside the United States. If other jurisdictions impose similar regulations, our business growth could be adversely affected.
In certain jurisdictions, we are subject to national, state, local, or municipal laws and regulations that are ambiguous in their application or enforcement or that we believe are invalid or inapplicable. In such jurisdictions, we may be subject to regulatory fines and proceedings and, in certain cases, may be required to cease operations altogether if we continue to operate our business as currently conducted, unless and until such laws and regulations are reformed to clarify that our business operations are fully compliant or such laws and regulations are determined to be invalid or inapplicable. For example, in September 2020, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal issued a ruling against a group of drivers who used the Uber app, concluding that by driving for hire without a Hire Car Permit, they violated the local Road Traffic Ordinance. We obtained a favorable ruling in a judicial review, and the Hong Kong Transport Department has appealed the decision. As another example, in January 2020, we ceased offering our Mobility products in Colombia after a Colombian court ruled that we violated local competition laws. In response, we appealed the decision, made certain changes to our Mobility products in Colombia and re-launched Mobility in Colombia in February 2020, and in June 2020, the Appeals Court of Bogota its order to block Mobility products in Colombia. Such decision was confirmed by the Colombia Supreme Court in 2023. Furthermore, in certain of these jurisdictions, we continue to provide our products and offerings while we assess the applicability of these laws and regulations to our products and offerings or while we seek judicial, regulatory or policy changes to address with respect to our ability to comply with these laws and regulations. Our decision to continue operating in these instances has come under or has otherwise been subject to by government authorities. Our continuation of this practice and other past practices may result in or other us and Drivers imposed by local regulators, potentially increasing the risk that our licenses or permits that are necessary to operate in such jurisdictions will not be renewed. Such and have in the past been, and may in the future continue to be, imposed solely on Drivers, which may cause Drivers to stop providing services on our platform. In many instances, we make the business decision as a gesture of goodwill to pay the on behalf of Drivers or to pay Drivers’ defense costs, which, in the aggregate, can be in the millions of dollars. Furthermore, such business practices may also result in press coverage, which may Drivers and consumers from using our platform and could affect our revenue. In addition, we face regulatory , including those lobbied for by our competitors or from local governments globally, that have and may continue to favor local or incumbent competitors, including for potential Drivers seeking to obtain required licenses or vehicle certifications. In addition, an increasing number of municipalities have proposed delivery network fee caps with respect to our Delivery offering and caps on surge pricing with respect to our Mobility offering. We have incurred, and expect that we will continue to incur, significant costs in our right to operate in accordance with our business model in many jurisdictions. To the extent that efforts to block or limit our operations are , or we or Drivers are required to comply with regulatory and other requirements applicable to taxicab and car services, our revenue and growth would be affected.
Our business is subject to numerous legal and regulatory risks that could have an adverse impact on our business and future prospects.
As of December 31, 2025, our platform is available in more than 15,000 cities in over 70 countries. We are subject to differing, and sometimes conflicting, laws and regulations in the various jurisdictions in which we provide our offerings. A large number of proposals are before various national, regional, and local legislative bodies and regulatory entities, both within the United States and in foreign jurisdictions, regarding issues related to our business model. Certain proposals, if adopted, could significantly and materially harm our business, financial condition, and operating results by restricting or limiting how we operate our business, increasing our operating costs, and decreasing our number of platform users. We cannot predict whether or when such proposals may be adopted.
Further, existing or new laws and regulations could expose us to substantial liability, including significant expenses necessary to comply with such laws and regulations, and could dampen the growth and usage of our platform. For example, as we expand our offerings in new areas, such as non-emergency medical transportation, we may be subject to additional healthcare-related federal and local and state laws and regulations. Additionally, because our offerings are frequently first-to-market in the jurisdictions in which we operate, several local jurisdictions have passed, and we expect additional jurisdictions to pass, laws and regulations that limit or block our ability to offer our products to Drivers and consumers in those jurisdictions, thereby impeding overall use of our platform. We are actively challenging some of these laws and regulations and are lobbying other jurisdictions to oppose similar restrictions on our business, especially our ridesharing services. Further, because a substantial portion of our business involves vehicles that run on fossil fuels, laws, regulations, or governmental actions seeking to curb air pollution or emissions may impact our business. Moreover, in May 2021, California adopted a regulation requiring 90% of vehicle miles traveled by rideshare fleets in California to have been in EVs by 2030, with interim targets beginning in 2023. Additionally, proposed ridesharing regulations in Egypt and other jurisdictions may require us to share certain personal data with government authorities to operate our app, which we may not be willing to provide.
Our failure to share such data in accordance with these regulations may result in government authorities assessing significant fines or penalties against us or shutting down our or Careem’s app in Egypt on either a temporary or indefinite basis.
In addition, we are currently involved in litigation in a number of the jurisdictions in which we operate. We initiated some of these legal challenges to contest the application of certain laws and regulations to our business. Others have been brought by taxicab owners, local regulators, local law enforcement, and platform users, including Drivers and consumers. These include individual, multiple plaintiff, and putative class and class action claims for alleged violation of laws related to, among other things, transportation, competition, advertising, consumer protection, fee calculations, personal injuries, privacy, intellectual property, product liability, discrimination, safety, and employment. For example, in May 2019, a class action was filed against us and certain of our subsidiaries in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia on behalf of participants in the taxi, hire-car, limousine, and charter vehicle industry who were licensed to operate in particular regions of Australia during certain periods between April 2014 and August 2017. The class action alleges that we operated in such regions during such periods. The court approved the class action settlement with no admission of liability by Uber. In September 2024, a constitutional reform to the judiciary in Mexico was approved, establishing that judges will be elected by citizens starting in June 2025; such reform may result in uncertainty in outcomes if new judges judicial experience. These legislative and regulatory proceedings, , and lawsuits are expensive and time consuming to , and, if resolved to us, could result in financial or , including , , and sanctions for individuals employed by us or parties with whom we contract, which could our ability to operate our business as planned in one or more of the jurisdictions in which we operate, which could affect our business, revenue, and operating results.
In addition, while we divested certain assets of our dockless e-bikes and e-scooters business to Lime in May 2020, consumers in certain cities continue to have access to dockless e-bikes and e-scooters through our app. We expect dockless e-bikes and e-scooters to subject us to additional risks distinct from those relating to our other Mobility, Delivery and Freight offerings. For example, consumers using dockless e-bikes or e-scooters face a more severe level of injury in the event of a collision than that faced while riding in a vehicle, given the less sophisticated, and in some cases absent, passive protection systems on dockless e-bikes and e-scooters. The occurrence of real or perceived quality problems or material defects in current or future dockless e-bikes or e-scooters available via our app could result in negative publicity, market withdrawals, regulatory proceedings, enforcement actions, or lawsuits filed against us, particularly if consumers are injured.
Changes in, or failure to comply with, competition laws could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Competition authorities closely scrutinize us under U.S. and foreign antitrust and competition laws. An increasing number of governments are enforcing competition laws and are doing so with increased scrutiny, including governments in large markets such as the EU, the United States, Brazil, and India, particularly surrounding issues of pricing parity, earnings parity, price-fixing, and abuse of market power. Many of these jurisdictions also allow competitors or consumers to assert claims of anti-competitive conduct. For example, complaints have been filed in several jurisdictions, including in the United States and Brazil, alleging that our business practices violate applicable antitrust and/or competition laws. If one jurisdiction imposes or proposes to impose new requirements or restrictions on our business, other jurisdictions may follow. Further, any new requirements or restrictions, or proposed requirements or restrictions, could result in adverse publicity or fines, whether or not valid or subject to appeal.
In addition, governmental agencies and regulators have and may in the future, among other things, prohibit acquisitions, divestitures, or combinations we plan to make, impose significant fines or penalties, require divestiture of certain of our assets, or impose other restrictions that limit or require us to modify our operations, including limitations on our contractual relationships with platform users or restrictions on our pricing models. Such rulings may alter the way in which we do business and, therefore, may continue to increase our costs or liabilities or reduce demand for our platform, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
We expect that antitrust enforcement agencies (including the U.S. Department of Justice (the “ DOJ”) and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”)) will continue to closely scrutinize merger activity, with a particular focus on the technology sector, and there can be no assurance that proposed, completed or future mergers, acquisitions and divestitures will not be the subject of an investigation or enforcement action by the DOJ, the FTC or another antitrust enforcement agency. Changes in antitrust laws globally, or in their interpretation, administration or enforcement, may limit our future acquisitions, divestitures, operations and growth.
Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight relating to the provision of payment and financial services.
Most jurisdictions in which we operate have laws that govern payment and financial services activities. Regulators in certain jurisdictions may determine that certain aspects of our business are subject to these laws and could require us to obtain licenses to continue to operate in such jurisdictions. For example, our subsidiary in the Netherlands, Uber Payments B.V., is registered and authorized by its competent authority, De Nederlandsche Bank, as an electronic money institution. This authorization permits Uber Payments B.V. to provide payment services (including acquiring and executing payment transactions and money remittances, as referred to in the Revised Payment Services Directive (2015/2366/EU)) and to issue electronic money in the Netherlands. In addition, Uber Payments B.V. has notified De Nederlandsche Bank that it will provide such services on a cross-border passport basis into other
countries within the EEA. Uber Payments UK Limited holds a similar license in the United Kingdom issued by the Financial Conduct Authority, as does UBR Pagos México, S.A. de C.V., Institución de Fondos de Pago Electrónico, issued by the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores in Mexico. We continue to critically evaluate our options for seeking additional licenses and approvals in several other jurisdictions to optimize our payment solutions and support the future growth of our business. We could be denied such licenses, have existing licenses revoked, or be required to make significant changes to our business operations before being granted such licenses. If we are denied payment or other financial licenses or such licenses are revoked, we could be forced to cease or limit business operations in certain jurisdictions, including in the EEA, and even if we are able to obtain such licenses, we could be subject to fines or other enforcement action, or stripped of such licenses, if we are found to the requirements of such licenses. In some countries, it is not clear whether we are required to be licensed as a payment services provider. Were local regulators to determine that such arrangements require us to be so licensed, such regulators may block payments to Drivers, merchants, Shippers or Carriers. Such regulatory actions, or the need to obtain regulatory approvals, could impose significant costs and involve substantial in payments we make in certain local markets, any of which could affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Payments made by platform users with payment instruments or payment accounts issued in jurisdictions such as the EEA, the UK and Mexico for services provided through our platform may be subject to Strong Customer Authentication (“SCA”) regulatory requirements. In many cases, SCA will require a platform user to engage in additional steps to authenticate each payment transaction. These additional authentication requirements in the EEA, UK and Mexico or similar requirements, such as tokenization, in other countries may make our platform user experience substantially less convenient, and such loss of convenience could meaningfully reduce the frequency with which platform users use our platform or could cause some platform users to stop using our platform entirely, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects. Further, as a result of implementing SCA, many payment transactions on our platform may fail to be authenticated due to platform users not completing all necessary authentication steps. Thus, in some cases, we may not receive payment from consumers in advance of paying Drivers for services received by those users. A substantial increase in the frequency with which we make Driver payments without having received corresponding payments from consumers could adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.
In addition, laws related to money transmission and online payments are evolving, and changes in such laws could affect our ability to provide payment processing on our platform in the same form and on the same terms as we have historically, or at all. For example, changes to our business in Europe, combined with changes to the EU Payment Services Directive, caused aspects of our payment operations in the EEA to fall within the scope of European payments regulation. As a result, one of our subsidiaries, Uber Payments B.V., is directly subject to financial services regulations (including those relating to anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctioned or prohibited persons) in the Netherlands and in other countries in the EEA where it conducts business. Effective July 1, 2020, we transitioned all our payment operations to the Uber Payments B.V. regulated entity in the EEA countries in which we are required to do so by the European payments regulations.
In addition, as we evolve our business or make changes to our business structure, we may be subject to additional laws or requirements related to money transmission, online payments, and financial regulation. These laws govern, among other things, money transmission, prepaid access instruments, electronic funds transfers, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, banking, systemic integrity risk assessments, security of payment processes, financial products and services, and import and export restrictions. Our business operations, including our payments to Drivers and merchants, may not always comply with these financial laws and regulations. Historical or future non-compliance with these laws or regulations could result in significant criminal and civil lawsuits, penalties, forfeiture of significant assets, or other enforcement actions. Costs associated with fines and enforcement actions, as well as reputational harm, changes in compliance requirements, or limits on our ability to expand our product offerings, could harm our business.
Further, our payment system is susceptible to illegal and improper uses, including fraud on our platform such as fraud against us or platform users, money laundering, terrorist financing, fraudulent sales of goods or services, and payments to sanctioned parties. We have invested and will need to continue to invest substantial resources to comply with applicable anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, and in certain jurisdictions, such as the EEA, the UK and Mexico to conduct appropriate risk assessments and implement appropriate controls as a regulated financial service provider. Government authorities may seek to bring legal action against us if our payment system is used for improper or illegal purposes or if our enterprise risk management or controls in certain jurisdictions such as the EEA, the UK, and Mexico are not adequately assessed, updated, or implemented, and any such action could result in financial or reputational to our business.
We currently are subject to a number of inquiries, investigations, and requests for information from the DOJ, FTC, other federal, state and local government agencies and other foreign government agencies, the adverse outcomes of which could harm our business.
We are the subject of DOJ inquiries and investigations, as well as enforcement inquiries and investigations by other federal, state and local government agencies and other regulators abroad. Those inquiries and investigations cover a broad range of matters, including but not limited to, our business practices, such as fees, driver and courier earnings, consumer pricing, earner benefits, and related disclosures, financial products that may be offered by our partners on our platform, policies and practices related to safety incidents, and compliance with federal or state anti-discrimination laws. These issues may continue to lead to costly and time-
consuming regulatory investigations and litigation from other government entities, as well as potentially material fines and penalties imposed by other U.S. and international regulators. Investigations and enforcement actions from such entities, as well as continued negative publicity and an erosion of current and prospective platform users’ trust, could severely disrupt our business.
We are also subject to inquiries and investigations by government agencies related to certain transactions we have entered into in the United States and other countries.
These government inquiries and investigations are time-consuming and require a great deal of financial resources and attention from us and our senior management. If any of these matters are resolved adversely to us, we may be subject to additional fines, penalties, and other sanctions, and could be forced to change our business practices substantially in the relevant jurisdictions. Any such determinations could also result in significant adverse publicity or additional reputational harm, and could result in or complicate other inquiries, investigations, or lawsuits from other regulators in future merger control or conduct investigations. Any of these developments could result in material financial damages or operational restrictions, and harm our business.
We face risks related to our collection, use, transfer, disclosure, deletion and other processing of data, which could result in investigations, inquiries, litigation, fines, legislative and regulatory action, and negative press about our privacy and data protection practices.
The nature of our business exposes us to claims, including civil lawsuits in the United States such as those related to the 2016 Breach. These and any past or future privacy or security incidents could result in violation of applicable U.S. and international privacy, data protection, and other laws. Such violations subject us to individual or consumer class action litigation as well as governmental investigations and proceedings by federal, state, and local regulatory entities in the United States and internationally, resulting in exposure to material civil or criminal liability. Our data security and privacy practices have been the subject of inquiries from government agencies and regulators, not all of which are finally resolved. In April 2018, we entered into an FTC consent decree pursuant to which we agreed, among other things, to implement a comprehensive privacy program, undergo biennial third-party assessments, and not misrepresent how we protect consumer information through 2038. In October 2018, the FTC approved the final settlement, which us to for, amongst other activities, future to report security . In November and December 2018, UK, Dutch and French supervisory authorities imposed totaling approximately $1.6 million. We have also entered into settlement agreements with numerous state enforcement agencies. For example, in January 2016, we entered into a settlement with the Office of the New York State Attorney General under which we agreed to our data security practices. In addition, in September 2018, we entered into stipulated judgments with the state attorneys general of all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia relating to the 2016 , which involved payment of $148 million and assurances that we would our data security and privacy practices. In addition, in March 2022, Uber Technologies, Inc. and Uber B.V. were each €2.12 million by the Italian data protection authority for privacy stemming from an conducted in 2018. Additionally, in July 2022, we entered into a non- agreement with the DOJ concerning its into our handling of the 2016 . to comply with these and other orders could result in substantial , enforcement actions, injunctive relief, and other that may be or that may impact our business. We may also assume liabilities for experienced by the companies we acquire as we expand our operations. For example, in April 2018, Careem publicly and notified relevant regulatory authorities that it had been subject to a data security that allowed access to certain personal information of riders and drivers on its platform as of January 14, 2018. If Careem becomes subject to liability as a result of this or other data security or if we to remediate this or any other data security that Careem or we experience, we may face to our brand, business , and significant liabilities. If we to remediate any data security that we experience, we may face to our brand, business , and significant liabilities. Our insurance programs may not cover all potential to which we are and may not be adequate to indemnify us for the full extent of our potential liabilities. We may also be impacted by privacy or security at third-party service providers. We rely on third-party service providers to host or otherwise process some of our data and that of platform users, and they have experienced, and may again experience, security and privacy . Any by such third-party providers to prevent or mitigate security or access to, or use, acquisition, disclosure, alteration, or of, such data could have similar consequences for us.
This risk is enhanced in certain jurisdictions with stringent privacy laws and, as we expand our products, offerings, and operations domestically and internationally, we have been, and may continue to become, subject to amended or additional laws that impose substantial additional obligations related to data privacy and security. The EU adopted the GDPR in 2016, and it became effective in May 2018. The GDPR applies extraterritorially and imposes stringent requirements for controllers and processors of personal data. Such requirements include higher consent standards to process personal data, robust disclosures regarding the use of personal data, strengthened individual data rights, data breach requirements, limitations on data retention, strengthened requirements for special categories of personal data and pseudonymised (i.e., key-coded) data, and additional obligations for contracting with service providers that may process personal data. In addition, the GDPR contains a provision that individuals shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning them or similarly significantly affects them. Decisions based on AI or on automated processing of data, or disclosures regarding this processing, have and could our business, and have and could subject us to lawsuits, regulatory or other . The GDPR further provides that EU member states may institute additional laws and regulations impacting the processing of personal data, including (i) special categories of personal data (e.g., racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, and religious or philosophical
beliefs) and (ii) certain decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling. Such additional laws and regulations could limit our ability to use and share personal or other data, thereby increasing our costs and harming our business and financial condition. Non-compliance with the GDPR (including any non-compliance by any acquired business) is subject to significant penalties, including fines of up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of total worldwide revenue, and injunctions against the processing of personal data. Other jurisdictions outside the EU are similarly introducing or enhancing privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations, including for automated processing, decision making, and profiling, which will increase our compliance costs and the risks associated with non-compliance. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which provided new privacy rights for consumers and new operational requirements for businesses, went into effect in January 2020. The CCPA includes a statutory damages framework and private rights of action against businesses that to comply with certain CCPA terms or implement reasonable security procedures and practices to prevent data . Other U.S. states have adopted, and likely will continue to adopt, similar laws that provide new consumer privacy rights and business operational requirements. Brazil and India similarly passed national privacy laws establishing new rights for individuals, and responsibilities for companies that collect personal data, in 2018 and 2023, respectively. These laws may be subject to amendments and regulations that may change over time, or result in additional follow-on laws such as the California Privacy Rights Act passed in California in November 2020. For further information on risks related to our use of certain decisions based solely on automated processing or profiling, see the risk factor titled “—Our growing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning may present additional risks, including risks associated with algorithm development or use, the tools and data sets used, and/or a complex, developing regulatory environment.”
Additionally, we are subject to laws, rules, and regulations regarding cross-border transfers of personal data, including laws relating to transfer of personal data outside the EEA. We rely on transfer mechanisms permitted under these laws. Such mechanisms have received heightened regulatory and judicial scrutiny and have undergone modifications, and a 2020 decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union had cast doubt on the adequacy of all of the formerly-approved mechanisms for transferring personal data from countries in the EEA to certain other countries such as the United States. While in July 2023 the European Commission deemed a new EU-US Data Privacy Framework adequate for personal data transfers from the EU (and the rest of the EEA) to the United States, this Framework has been challenged. If we cannot rely on existing mechanisms for transferring personal data from the EEA, the United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions, we may be unable to transfer personal data of Drivers, consumers, or employees in those regions, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results, and has resulted in and may result in substantial fines, enforcement actions, litigation, injunctive relief, and other that may be or that may impact our business. In addition, we are subject to regulations that prohibit the transfer of personal data to, or access to personal data from, certain countries, such as those implemented by the DOJ prohibiting the bulk transfer of U.S. persons’ sensitive personal data to specified countries, including China and its territories. Such prohibitions could impact our business and operations. In the event we are to comply with such prohibitions, we could be subject to , enforcement actions, , and other that may be or that may impact our business.
In addition, we may be required to disclose personal data pursuant to demands from government agencies, including from state and city regulators as a requirement for obtaining or maintaining a license or otherwise, from law enforcement agencies, and from intelligence agencies. This disclosure or potential disclosure may result in a failure or perceived failure by us to comply with privacy and data protection policies, notices, laws, rules, and regulations, could result in proceedings or actions against us in the same or other jurisdictions, and could have an adverse impact on our reputation and brand. In addition, Careem has historically shared certain user data with certain government authorities, which conflicts with our global policies regarding data use, sharing, and ownership. We expect to maintain our data use, sharing, and ownership practices for both our business and Careem’s business, and doing so may cause our relationship with government authorities in certain jurisdictions to suffer, and may result in such government authorities assessing fines or penalties us. Further, if any jurisdiction in which we operate changes its laws, rules, or regulations relating to data residency or local computation such that we are to comply in a timely manner or at all, we may risk our rights to operate in such jurisdictions. This could affect the manner in which we provide our products and offerings and thus materially affect our operations and financial results.
Such data protection laws, rules, and regulations are complex and their interpretation is rapidly evolving, making implementation and enforcement, and thus compliance requirements, ambiguous, uncertain, and potentially inconsistent. This includes, for example, those relating to the processing of data for purposes of advertising and profile creation, which are subject to evolving disclosure, choice, and consent requirements in the EU, United States, and other jurisdictions. Compliance with such laws may require changes to our data collection, use, transfer, disclosure, and other processing and certain other related business practices and may thereby increase compliance costs or otherwise adversely affect our operations. Additionally, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with privacy and data protection policies, notices, laws, rules, orders and regulations could result in proceedings or actions against us by individuals, consumer rights groups, governmental entities or agencies, or others. We could incur significant costs investigating and defending such claims and, if found liable, significant damages. Further, these proceedings and any subsequent outcomes may subject us to significant and publicity. If any of these events were to occur, our business and financial results could be significantly and affected.
Adverse litigation judgments or settlements resulting from legal proceedings in which we may be involved could expose us to monetary damages or limit our ability to operate our business.
We have in the past been, are currently, and may in the future become, involved in private actions, collective actions, investigations, and various other legal proceedings by Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, Carriers, employees, commercial partners, competitors or, government agencies, among others. We are currently party to various legal and regulatory matters that have arisen in the normal course of business and include, among others, alleged independent contractor misclassification claims, Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) claims, alleged background check violations, pricing and advertising claims, unfair competition claims, intellectual property claims, employment discrimination and other employment-related claims, Americans with Disabilities Act, (“ADA”) claims, data and privacy claims, securities , , personal , related to safety practices, to regulations, and other matters. The results of any such , , and legal proceedings are inherently and expensive. Any us, whether or not, could be time consuming, , and to our reputation, and could require significant amounts of management time and corporate resources. If any of these legal proceedings were to be determined to us, or we were to enter into a settlement, we could be to monetary or be to change the way in which we operate our business, which could have an effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
In addition, we regularly include arbitration provisions in our terms of service with end-users. These provisions are intended to streamline the litigation process for all parties involved, as arbitration can in some cases be faster and less costly than litigating disputes in state or federal court. However, arbitration may become more costly for us, or the volume of arbitrations may increase and become burdensome. Further, the use of arbitration provisions may subject us to certain risks to our reputation and brand, as these provisions have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny. To minimize these risks, we have in the past and may in the future voluntarily limit our use of arbitration provisions, or we may be required to do so, in any legal or regulatory proceeding, either of which could increase our litigation costs and exposure in respect of such proceedings. For example, effective May 15, 2018, we ended mandatory arbitration of sexual misconduct by platform users and employees.
Further, with the potential for conflicting rules regarding the scope and enforceability of arbitration on a state-by-state basis, as well as conflicting rules between state and federal law, some or all of our arbitration provisions could be subject to challenge or may need to be revised to exempt certain categories of protection. If our arbitration agreements were found to be unenforceable, in whole or in part, or specific claims were required to be exempted from arbitration, we could experience an increase in our litigation costs and the time involved in resolving such disputes, and we could face increased exposure to potentially costly lawsuits, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects.
We have operations in countries known to experience high levels of corruption and were previously subject to, and may in the future be subject to, inquiries, investigations, and requests for information with respect to our compliance with a number of anti-corruption laws to which we are subject.
We have operations in, and have business relationships with, entities in countries known to experience high levels of corruption. We are subject to the FCPA and other similar laws outside the United States that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign officials, foreign political parties, or candidates for foreign political office for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. U.S. and non-U.S. regulators alike continue to focus on the enforcement of these laws, and we may be subject to additional compliance requirements to identify criminal activity and payments to sanctioned parties. Our activities in certain countries with high levels of corruption enhance the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers or Carriers, employees, consultants, or business partners in violation of various anti-corruption laws, including the FCPA, even though the actions of these parties are often outside our control. Our acquisition of Careem may further enhance this risk because users of Careem’s platform and Careem’s employees, consultants, and business partners may not be familiar with, and may not have been previously subject to, these anti- laws. In addition, our existing and future safeguards, including training and compliance programs to these practices by such parties, may not prove , and such parties may engage in conduct for which we could be held responsible. Additional compliance requirements may compel us to revise or expand our compliance program, including the procedures we use to verify the identity of platform users and monitor international and domestic transactions.
Drivers may become subject to increased licensing requirements, and we may be required to obtain additional licenses or cap the number of Drivers using our platform.
Many Drivers currently are not required to obtain a commercial taxi or livery license in their respective jurisdictions. However, numerous jurisdictions in which we operate have conducted investigations or taken action to enforce existing licensing rules, including markets within Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, and many others, including countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, have adopted or proposed new laws or regulations that require Drivers to be licensed with local authorities or require us or our subsidiaries to be licensed as a transportation company. Local regulations requiring the licensing of us or Drivers may adversely affect our ability to scale our business and operations. In addition, it is possible that various jurisdictions could impose caps on the number of licensed Drivers or vehicles with whom we may partner or impose limitations on the maximum number of hours a Driver may work, similar to recent regulations that were adopted in Spain and New York City, which have temporarily frozen new vehicle licenses for Drivers using platforms like ours. If we or Drivers become subject to such caps, limitations, or licensing requirements, our business and growth prospects would be adversely impacted.
We may be subject to liability for the means we use to attract and onboard Drivers.
We operate in an industry in which the competition for Drivers is intense. In this highly competitive environment, the means we use to onboard and attract Drivers may be challenged by competitors, government regulators, or individual plaintiffs. For example, putative class actions have been filed by individual plaintiffs against us for alleged violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, alleging, among other things, that plaintiffs received text messages from us regarding our Driver program without their consent or after indicating to us they no longer wished to receive such text messages. These lawsuits are expensive and time consuming to defend, and, if resolved adversely to us, could result in material financial damages and penalties, costly adjustments to our business practices, and publicity. In addition, we could incur substantial expense and possible of revenue if competitors file additional lawsuits or other these practices.
Our business depends heavily on insurance coverage for Drivers and on other types of insurance for additional risks related to our business. If insurance carriers change the terms of such insurance in a manner not favorable to Drivers or to us, if we are required to purchase additional insurance for other aspects of our business, or if we fail to comply with regulations governing insurance coverage, our business could be harmed.
We use a combination of third-party insurance and self-insurance mechanisms, including a wholly-owned captive insurance subsidiary. Insurance related to our Mobility products may include third-party automobile, automobile comprehensive and collision, physical damage, and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. We require Drivers to carry automobile insurance in most countries, and in many cases we also maintain insurance on behalf of Drivers. We rely on a limited number of ridesharing insurance providers, and should such providers discontinue or increase the cost of coverage, or cease operations or providing certain types of coverage, we cannot guarantee that we would be able to secure replacement coverage on reasonable terms or at all. In addition to insurance related to our products, we maintain other automobile insurance coverage for owned vehicles and employee activity, as well as insurance coverage for non-automotive corporate risks including general liability, workers’ compensation, property, cyber liability, and director and officers’ liability. If our insurance carriers change the terms of our policies in a manner unfavorable to us or Drivers, our insurance costs could increase. The cost of insurance that we maintain on behalf of Drivers is higher in the United States and Canada than in other geographies. Further, if the insurance coverage we maintain is not adequate to cover that occur, we could be liable for significant additional costs.
In addition, we and our captive insurance subsidiary are party to certain reinsurance and indemnification arrangements that transfer a significant portion of the risk from the insurance provider to us or our captive insurance subsidiary, which could require us to pay out material amounts that may be in excess of our insurance reserves, including as a result of adverse legal proceedings, resulting in harm to our financial condition. Our insurance reserves include amounts for unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses for risks retained by us through our captive insurance subsidiary and other risk retention mechanisms. Such amounts are based on actuarial estimates, historical claim information, and industry data. While management believes that these reserve amounts are adequate, the ultimate liability could be in excess of our reserves. Insurance recoverables are recognized when we enter into contracts that transfer the risk recorded in our insurance reserves to third-party insurance companies. We also have requirements to post collateral for current and future claim settlement obligations with certain of our insurance carriers, which may have a significant impact on our unrestricted cash and cash equivalents available for general business purposes.
We may be subject to claims of significant liability based on traffic accidents, injuries, or other incidents that are claimed to have been caused by Drivers who use our platform, even when those Drivers are not actively using our platform or when an individual impersonates a Driver, by consumers using our services, or by third parties. As we expand to include more offerings on our platform, our insurance needs will likely extend to those additional offerings, including Freight. As a result, our automobile liability and general liability insurance policies and insurance maintained by Drivers may not cover all potential claims related to traffic accidents, injuries, or other incidents that are claimed to have been caused by Drivers who use our platform or where liability is otherwise alleged against us, and may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that we could face. Even if these claims do not result in liability, we could incur significant costs in and them. If insurers become , they may not be to pay otherwise valid in a timely manner or at all. If we are subject to of liability relating to the acts of Drivers or others using our platform, we may be subject to publicity and incur additional expenses, which could our business, financial condition, and operating results.
In addition, we are subject to local laws, rules, and regulations relating to insurance coverage which could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. Legislation has been passed in many U.S. jurisdictions that codifies these insurance requirements with respect to ridesharing. Additional legislation has been proposed in other jurisdictions that seeks to codify or change insurance requirements with respect to ridesharing. Further, service providers and business customers of Freight and Uber for Business may require higher levels of coverage as a condition to entering into certain key contracts with us. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with local laws, rules, and regulations or contractual obligations relating to insurance coverage could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. These lawsuits, proceedings, or actions may subject us to significant penalties and negative publicity, require us to increase our insurance coverage, require us to amend our insurance policy disclosure, increase our costs, and disrupt our business.
We may be subject to pricing regulations, as well as related litigation or regulatory inquiries.
Our revenue is dependent on the pricing models we use to calculate consumer prices and Driver earnings. Our pricing models,
including dynamic pricing, have been, and will likely continue to be, challenged, banned, limited in emergencies, and capped in certain jurisdictions. For example, we have agreed to not calculate consumer fares in excess of the maximum government-mandated fares in all major Indian cities where legal proceedings have limited the use of surge pricing. Further, in 2018, Honolulu, Hawaii became the first U.S. city to pass legislation to cap surge pricing if increased rates exceed the maximum fare set by the city. Additional regulation of our pricing models could increase our operating costs and adversely affect our business. Furthermore, our pricing model has been the subject of litigation and regulatory inquiries related to, among other things, the calculation of and statements regarding consumer prices and Driver earnings (including rates, fees, surcharges, and tolls), as well as the use of surge pricing during emergencies and natural disasters. In addition, an increasing number of municipalities have proposed delivery network fee caps with respect to our Delivery offering and caps on surge pricing with respect to our Mobility offering. As a result, we may be forced to change our pricing models in certain jurisdictions, which could harm our revenue or result in a sub-optimal tax structure.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, or if third parties are successful in claiming that we are misappropriating the intellectual property of others, we may incur significant expense and our business may be adversely affected.
Our intellectual property includes the content of our website, mobile applications, registered domain names, software code, firmware, hardware and hardware designs, registered and unregistered trademarks, trademark applications, copyrights, trade secrets, inventions (whether or not patentable), patents, and patent applications. We believe that our intellectual property is essential to our business and affords us a competitive advantage in the markets in which we operate. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property, our brand and reputation may be harmed, Drivers, consumers, merchants, Shippers, and Carriers could devalue our products and offerings, and our ability to compete effectively may be impaired.
To protect our intellectual property, we rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, contractual provisions, end-user policies, and disclosure restrictions. Upon discovery of potential infringement of our intellectual property, we assess and when necessary, take action to protect our rights as appropriate. We also enter into confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and seek to control access to, and distribution of, our proprietary information in a commercially prudent manner. The efforts we have taken and may take to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective. For example, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we currently or in the future will operate. In addition, it may be possible for other parties to copy or reverse-engineer our products and offerings or obtain and use the content of our website without authorization. Further, we may be unable to prevent competitors or other third parties from acquiring or using domain names or trademarks that are similar to, infringe upon, or diminish the value of our domain names, trademarks, service marks, and other proprietary rights. Moreover, our trade secrets may be compromised by third parties or our employees, which would cause us to the competitive derived from the compromised trade secrets. Further, we may be to detect of our intellectual property rights, and even if we detect such and decide to enforce our intellectual property rights, we may not be , and may incur significant expenses, in such efforts. In addition, any such enforcement efforts may be time-consuming and may management’s attention. Further, such enforcement efforts may result in a ruling that our intellectual property rights are unenforceable or . Any to protect or any of our intellectual property may have an effect on our ability to compete and may affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Companies in the Internet and technology industries, and other patent and trademark holders, including “non-practicing entities,” seeking to profit from royalties in connection with grants of licenses or seeking to obtain injunctions, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We have and may in the future continue to receive notices that claim we have misappropriated, misused, or infringed upon other parties’ intellectual property rights.
Furthermore, from time to time we may introduce or acquire new products, including in areas in which we historically have not operated, which could increase our exposure to patent and other intellectual property claims. In addition, we, and companies we acquired or in which we have an interest, have been sued, and may in the future be sued, for allegations of intellectual property infringement or threats of trade secret misappropriation. If a company we acquire or in which we have an interest loses rights to valuable intellectual property or is found to infringe third party intellectual property rights in such lawsuits, the value of our investment may materially decline.
Any intellectual property claim against us, regardless of merit, could be time consuming and expensive to settle or litigate, could divert our management’s attention and other resources, and could hurt goodwill associated with our brand. These claims may also subject us to significant liability for damages and may result in us having to stop using technology, content, branding, or business methods found to be in violation of another party’s rights. Further, certain adverse outcomes of such proceedings could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively in existing or future businesses.
We may be required or may opt to seek a license for the right to use intellectual property held by others, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Even if a license is available, we may be required to pay significant royalties or license fees, which may increase our operating expenses. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, content, branding, or business methods, which could require significant effort and expense and make us less competitive. If we cannot license or develop alternative technology, content, branding, or business methods for any allegedly infringing aspect of our business,
we may be unable to compete effectively or we may be prevented from operating our business in certain jurisdictions. Any of these results could harm our operating results.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles.
The accounting for our business is complicated, particularly in the area of revenue recognition, and is subject to change based on the evolution of our business model, interpretations of relevant accounting principles, enforcement of existing or new regulations, and changes in SEC or other agency policies, rules, regulations, and interpretations, of accounting regulations. Changes to our business model and accounting methods could result in changes to our financial statements, including changes in revenue and expenses in any period, or in certain categories of revenue and expenses moving to different periods, may result in materially different financial results, and may require that we change how we process, analyze, and report financial information and our financial reporting controls.
If we are deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act, applicable restrictions could have an adverse effect on our business.
The Investment Company Act contains substantive legal requirements that regulate the manner in which “investment companies” are permitted to conduct their business activities. We believe that we have conducted our business in a manner that does not result in being characterized as an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act because we are primarily engaged in a non-investment company business. Although a significant portion of our assets constitute investments in non-controlled entities (including in China), referred to elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as minority-owned entities, we believe that we are not an investment company as defined by the Investment Company Act. While we intend to conduct our operations such that we will not be deemed an investment company, such a determination would require us to initiate burdensome compliance requirements and comply with restrictions imposed by the Investment Company Act that would limit our activities, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with subsidiaries and other entities, which would have an adverse effect on our financial condition. To avoid such a determination, we may be required to conduct our business in a manner that does not subject us to the requirements of the Investment Company Act, which could have an adverse effect on our business. For example, we may be required to sell certain of our assets and pay significant taxes upon the sale or transfer of such assets.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The market price of our common stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile or may decline steeply or suddenly regardless of our operating performance, and we may not be able to meet investor or analyst expectations. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid and may lose all or part of your investment.
The market price of our common stock may fluctuate or decline significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
• actual or anticipated fluctuations in MAPCs, Trips, Adjusted EBITDA, Free Cash Flow, Gross Bookings, revenue, or other operating and financial results, or additional non-GAAP measures we introduce;
• announcements by us or estimates by third parties of actual or anticipated changes in the number of Drivers and consumers on our platform;
• variations between our actual operating results and the expectations of our management, securities analysts, investors, the financial community;
• changes in accounting principles or changes in interpretations of existing principles, which could affect financial results;
• actions of securities analysts who initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
• announcements by us or our competitors of significant products or features, technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
• negative media coverage or publicity;
• changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular, including our competitors;
• price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
• lawsuits threatened, filed, or decided against us;
• developments in legislation or regulatory actions, including interim or final rulings by judicial or regulatory bodies (including any competition authorities blocking, delaying, or subjecting our pending acquisitions to significant limitations or restrictions on our ability to operate in one or more markets, or requiring us to divest our or any target company’s assets or businesses in one or more markets);
• changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles;
• any major change in our board of directors or management;
• any safety incidents or public reports of safety incidents that occur on our platform or in our industry;
• statements, commentary, or opinions by public officials that our product offerings are or may be unlawful, regardless of any interim or final rulings by judicial or regulatory bodies;
• any trading activity in our share repurchase program; and
• other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, civil unrest, public health concerns or epidemics, pandemics, or responses to these events.
In addition, price and volume fluctuations in the stock markets have affected and continue to affect many technology companies’ stock prices. Often, their stock prices have fluctuated in ways unrelated or disproportionate to the companies’ operating performance. In the past, stockholders have filed securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. For example, beginning in September 2019, several putative class actions were filed in California state and federal courts against us, our directors, certain of our officers, and the underwriters named in our IPO registration statement alleging violations of securities laws in connection with our IPO. Securities litigation could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and seriously harm our business. In addition, the occurrence of any of the factors listed above, among others, may cause our stock price to decline significantly, and there can be no assurance that our stock price would recover. As such, you may not be to sell your shares at or above the price you paid, and you may some or all of your investment.
Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our common stock by acting to discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions include the following:
• our board of directors has the right to elect directors to fill vacancies created by the expansion of our board of directors or the resignation, death, or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
• advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals, which may reduce the number of stockholder proposals available for stockholder consideration;
• limitations on stockholder ability to convene special stockholder meetings, which could make it difficult for our stockholders to adopt desired governance changes;
• prohibition on cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates; and
• our board of directors is able to issue, without stockholder approval, shares of undesignated preferred stock, which makes it possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to acquire us.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock. In addition, under our existing debt instruments, we, and certain of our subsidiaries, are subject to certain limitations on our business and operations, including limitations on certain consolidations, mergers, and sales of assets. For information regarding these and other provisions, see the risk factor titled “—We have incurred a significant amount of debt and may in the future incur additional indebtedness. Our payment obligations under such indebtedness may limit the funds available to us, and the terms of our debt agreements may restrict our flexibility in operating our business.”
Sales, directly or indirectly, of shares of our common stock by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.
Sales, directly or indirectly, of a substantial number of shares of our common stock, or the public perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We may issue our shares of common stock or securities convertible or exchangeable into or exercisable for our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investments or otherwise. Such issuances, including the issuance of additional shares of our common stock upon exercise of equity awards or conversion of our convertible notes, could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. In
addition, certain of our existing debt instruments include restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our common stock if the market price of our common stock increases.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and, to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the United States of America are the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law:
• any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;
• any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty;
• any action asserting a claim against us or our directors, officers, or employees arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws;
• any action regarding our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws;
• any action as to which the Delaware General Corporation Law confers jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; and
• any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.
This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, subject to and contingent upon a final adjudication in the State of Delaware of the enforceability of such exclusive forum provision. Although the Delaware Supreme Court has held that such exclusive forum provisions are facially valid, courts in other jurisdictions may find such provisions to be unenforceable.
These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. If any other court of competent jurisdiction were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, and the market price of our common stock may be harmed.
As a result of being a public company, we are obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, and any failure to maintain the adequacy of these internal controls may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock.
We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404”), to furnish an annual report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm is required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial annually. We currently are required to disclose changes in internal control over financial reporting that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting on a quarterly basis.
The process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404 is costly and challenging, and we may not be able to complete evaluation, testing, and any required remediation in a timely fashion. As our business continues to grow in size and complexity, we are improving our processes and infrastructure to help ensure we can prepare financial reporting and disclosures within the timeline required for a public company. During the evaluation and testing process of our internal controls, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective.
We cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future, which may cause challenges in consistent performance and timely designing new controls. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or operating results. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. to remedy any material in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain these
and other effective control systems, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
