In its last earnings report, Lyft said it had to block new drivers from joining the app in some markets, while reducing its spending on marketing and other incentives.
Last year, both companies were focused on reducing costs, and often that meant actively constraining its supply of drivers. Lyft saw a 42.3 percent drop over the same period. But that will depend on many factors, including offices reopening, leisure activities returning, business travel rebounding, and people starting to return to their daily routines.Īccording to data from Apptopia, the number of US-based drivers logging into Uber during the first three months of 2021 was down 37.5 percent year over year. It seems logical that as vaccination rates continue to go up, more people will start using Uber and Lyft again. Uber claims that the demand is “coming back,” though how much we won’t know until the company reports its first earnings report for 2021. Meanwhile, Lyft reported a drop in monthly active users of 45 percent, from 22 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 12.5 million in 2020. In the last quarter of 2020, Uber said it had only 93 million “monthly active platform consumers,” its term for users who take at least one ride on Uber or buy at least one meal on Uber Eats - a 16 percent decrease year over year. People stayed at home, or when they did go out, they opted not to use ride-hailing apps. A major challenge for this effort, though, is that COVID-19 continues to be a huge drag on Uber’s and Lyft’s respective businesses.Īs case numbers spiked over the winter, both companies lost a significant portion of their customer base. The hope is that these incentives can help persuade those drivers who logged off after being discouraged by the lack of riders to eventually come back. Lyft, meanwhile, is covering the cost of rental cars, offering $800 bonuses to drivers to return to the app, and doling out extra cash to drivers when a trip lasts longer than nine minutes, according to the Financial Times.