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These 5 charts show how Uber and Lyft compare financially as they fight to win the ride-hailing race

Apr 16, 2019, 00:23 IST

BI Graphics / Samantha Lee

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  • Uber and Lyft are set to be the first publicly traded ride-hailing companies when Uber finishes its IPO that it began last week.
  • The companies' IPO filings are the first look investors have at audited financials for Uber and Lyft.
  • Business Insider pulled out five key lines from the companies' balance sheets to show how the two compare.

Uber filed its long-awaited documents for an initial pubic offering, or IPO on Thursday, giving us the first comprehensive look at the ride-hailing giant's financial situation (and other internal information).

The company has previously self-reported some of its earnings, but the releases were unaudited and without any additional context.

Friday's filing is the first time we have three years worth of audited financial information from Uber, which could have one of the largest IPOs in history, and the first time many numbers are comparable with Lyft, which recently also went public.

Business Insider dove into Uber's nearly 300-page prospectus and boiled the hot competition between the company and Lyft to five important charts.

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The data show that Uber is, as expected, still much larger than Lyft.

Uber's revenue is still growing like crazy, up to $5.2 billion in 2018 compared to Lyft's $600 million.

There's still plenty of room for growth, though. Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on personal transportation, according to Tom White, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, who launched coverage of Lyft last month.

In terms of total rides, that gap is even bigger.

Those two metrics blend to give us what the companies call "bookings."

In a nutshell, gross bookings is the total Uber or Lyft charge from riders, before paying drivers, which is easily one of the biggest expenses for both companies. They both calculate the exact bookings line slightly differently (Uber includes Uber Eats, for example), but for showing directionality, it's a useful metric to investors.

"Our long-term valuation framework for Lyft assumes that the company achieves a 31.4% bookings share by 2029 (vs. an estimated 14.9% share today)," D. A. Davidson's White said in his initiation report.

Uber has turned a profit.

Lyft, however, warned investors in its IPO filing that it might never make a profit. Since trading began at the end of March, shares of Lyft have fallen more than 26% from their first prices.

One of the most important lines: costs

Revenue, of course, is meaningless without knowing what costs a company has to spend that income on.

"We believe there could be continued pressure on LYFT shares while investors wait for Uber's roadshow and dig further into the full financial metrics," Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said in a note to clients this week. "In our opinion the battle for market share will be balanced going forward. "

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