Uber Technologies Inc has reported an increase in bookings for the second quarter, with a smaller loss than 2017’s first quarter.
As the car-hailing company is slowly edging towards profitability, they announced a loss of $645 million in 2017’s second quarter. This is nine percent less than the $708 million loss in the first quarter of the year.
Uber has faced a tough year, with a series of lawsuits surrounding sexual harassment and trade-secrets theft. In June this year, the company fired 20 employees on a crackdown of sexual harassment.
“I have just read Susan Fowler’s blog. What she describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in. It’s the first time this has come to my attention so I have instructed Liane Hornsey our new Chief Human Resources Officer to conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations. We seek to make Uber a just workplace and there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behaviour at Uber — and anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired.” said former CEO Travis Kalanick.
The group have said gross ride bookings for the second quarter were at $8.7 billion, up from the first quarter’s $7.5 billion.
Global trips for the company have increased by 150 percent compared to the previous year.
Despite the continued losses, Uber has been able to continue operating through the $15 billion raised from investors.
Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, said that the stats released by the group may be showing the situation in a very positive light.
“There’s clearly growth in the numbers reported by Uber here,” he said, but they should be taken “with a big pinch of salt.”
The tech company is currently amid search for a new CEO and a chief financial officer. It is unsure how lack of these positions will affect results.