Following the announcement of Lyft and Uber’s earnings;

Wafaa Hassan, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on the impact of COVID-19 on Lyft and Uber:

“Ride sharing providers Lyft and Uber are suffering at the hands of COVID-19. In GlobalData’s Ecommerce Thematic Ranking, Lyft has fallen from tenth to nineteenth and Uber has dropped from eighth to fourteenth due to the impact of COVID-19. However, Uber and Lyft are still ahead of their competitor Yandix, which only ranked two out of five for the expected impact that the coronavirus will have on the firm. In addition, Uber also ranks ahead of its competitor, Didi Chuxing, which is ranked one out of five, but Lyft trails behind both.

“As people around the world are under government orders to stay at home, Lyft and Uber are facing a new unprecedented reality, which is having an effect on their financials. In Q1 2020, Lyft reported an increase in revenue of 23% from the same period of 2019. However, sales were down 6% from Q4 2019 and the company missed its revenue guidance target. “GlobalData expects Lyft’s revenue to fall further in Q2, as lockdowns in major markets such as the US only began in mid-March – two weeks before the end of the first quarter. In Q1 2020, Uber reported an increase in revenue of 14% from the same period of the previous year. However, sales were down by 13% from Q4 2019.

“Unfortunately, there is not much Lyft and Uber can do during this period of uncertainty but go into survival mode to try and weather the storm as best they can. Both have already taken steps to reduce costs, with Lyft announcing plans to lay off nearly 1,000 employees and reduce executive pay, while Uber is cutting 3,700 full-time staff.”