Uber to cut costs, focus on unit economics, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tells staff

New Delhi: Uber will cut costs and focus on becoming a leaner company in response to a "seismic shift" in investor sentiment, according to an email acquired by CNBC from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

“After earnings, I spent several days meeting investors in New York and Boston,” Khosrowshahi said in the email, which was sent out late on Sunday. “It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly.”

Uber will cut marketing and incentive spending and treat hiring as a "privilege" to meet the shift in economic attitude, Khosrowshahi wrote.


“We have to make sure our unit economics work before we go big,” the Uber boss wrote. “The least efficient marketing and incentive spend will be pulled back.”

“We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate about when and where we add headcount. We will be even more hardcore about costs across the board.”

Uber will now focus on free cash flow profitability rather than adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), according to Khosrowshahi.

“We have made a ton of progress in terms of profitability, setting a target for $5 billion in adjusted Ebitda in 2024, but the goalposts have changed,” he said. “Now it’s about free cash flow. We can (and should) get there fast.”