ber Applied sciences Inc. reported declining income within the fourth quarter, exhibiting that demand for meals supply isn’t making up for a falloff in ridership.

Gross sales dropped 16 % to $3.17 billion, wanting a mean of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Efficiency in Canada, Latin America and the U.S. was significantly dismal.

Regardless of the shortfall, the San Francisco-based firm narrowed its loss within the quarter that led to December, using a wave of offers that shed a few of its extra fanciful pursuits.

It seems that autonomous automobiles and flying vehicles weren’t serving to Uber obtain its objective of a quarterly revenue earlier than curiosity, taxes and different bills by the top of this 12 months. Within the fourth quarter, when it bought these two enterprise models to startups in trade for fairness, Uber posted an adjusted lack of $454 million, beating analysts’ estimates.

In its quarterly outcomes launched Wednesday, Uber stated it’s nonetheless on observe to show an adjusted revenue a while this 12 months. And it disclosed yet one more asset sale, confirming a Bloomberg report in September that it was promoting a part of its stake within the Chinese language ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing. Uber stated it bought $207 million of the shares and has an settlement to promote $293 million extra.

Uber didn’t provide a forecast within the report. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi indicated that higher instances might not arrive till the summer season. “We’re bullish that we will ship robust progress and increasing margins within the second half of the 12 months,” he stated in a convention name with analysts.

Earlier than the coronavirus pandemic upended Uber, the corporate had Amazon.com Inc.-sized ambitions. Cratering demand for Uber’s essential product — rides — pressured Khosrowshahi to unload or abandon dear initiatives and scale back spending. His technique depends on two companies: supply and transportation.

Because the pandemic drags on, supply is the star. The unit continued its surge, with 130 % progress within the fourth quarter to $10.05 billion in gross bookings. Analysts anticipated $9.77 billion.

Amid all the associated fee trimming, supply is one space Uber has invested closely. It finalized the $2.65 billion buy of meals supply firm Postmates late final 12 months and agreed to accumulate booze supply supplier Drizly Inc. for $1.1 billion. The latter acquisition enhances Uber’s meals enterprise and can drive progress, JMP Securities analyst Ron Josey wrote in a report this month. Morgan Stanley famous the alternatives to increase the service internationally and signal promoting offers.

In rides, Uber noticed demand rebound erratically in numerous areas. Mobility gross bookings had been down by half to $6.79 billion within the fourth quarter in contrast with final 12 months however have been inching up because the darkest days of the pandemic. The efficiency fell wanting analysts’ expectations.

One carefully watched metric — the variety of clients who use the platform every month — dipped 16 % to 93 million within the fourth quarter, higher than Wall Road estimates.

Uber ended the 12 months with $5.6 billion in money, greater than anticipated, however solely about half of what the corporate had on the finish of 2019.