It has to do with revenue recognition. What the riders pay is not Uber's top line revenue, instead what the driver pays Uber back from that fare is. See Uber's

It has to do with revenue recognition. What the riders pay is not Uber's top line revenue, instead what the driver pays Uber back from that fare is. See Uber's 2019 annual financial report [1]. That amount you are thinking of as revenue is referred to as "Gross Bookings": > Gross Bookings. We define Gross Bookings as the total dollar value, including any applicable taxes, tolls, and fees, of Rides and New Mobility rides, Eats meal deliveries, and amounts paid by Freight shippers (p. 61) Uber's cut of the transactions is defined as the Take Rate, and was 21.4% in 2019. That means that 79.6% of the fares Uber collects was paid to drivers. [1] https://s23.q4cdn.com/407969754/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/Uber-Technologies-Inc-2019-Annual-Report.pdf https://s23.q4cdn.com/407969754/files/doc_financials/2019/ar...