Lyft’s Income Jumps 70% as Riders’ Spending Will increase

Lyft reported an adjusted revenue earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $74.7 million within the newest interval, roughly in step with expectations, and serving to it put up its first annual optimistic adjusted Ebitda.

“We’ve been battle examined,” Lyft President

John Zimmer

stated in an interview, including that the pandemic had pushed the corporate to develop into leaner and extra environment friendly. Lyft dramatically minimize prices in the course of the well being disaster and shed money-losing bets akin to its self-driving unit.

Lyft reported 18.7 million lively riders within the quarter, in contrast with 18.9 million within the earlier quarter and 12.6 million within the comparable year-earlier interval. It had 22.9 million lively riders on the finish of 2019.

Lyft stated income per lively rider reached a report $51.79 within the fourth quarter, up $6.16 from the earlier quarter, largely pushed by longer rides, which are usually costlier, in response to Mr. Zimmer. Journeys to airports greater than doubled year-over-year, he stated.

Analysts polled by FactSet had anticipated 20.2 million lively riders and for income per lively rider to be $46.50.

For 2021, Lyft reported a narrowed lack of $1.01 billion and income of $3.21 billion, up 36% from 2020.

A seamless driver scarcity pushed costs for Lyft rides to report highs in the course of the yr. Mr. Zimmer stated that the labor crunch has “gotten significantly better,” and that new driver activations had been up 50% year-over-year within the fourth quarter.

For the quarter, the corporate reported a lack of $258.6 million, narrowing from $458.2 million a yr earlier. Analysts anticipated the loss to slim to about $174 million.

—Preetika Rana contributed to this text.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com