Lyft Takes 9 Percentage Points Of US Market Share From Rival Uber

Lyft has nearly doubled its market share, taking nine percentage points away from rival and market leader Uber.

According to news from Bloomberg, Certify data showed that San Francisco-based Lyft comprised 19 percent of ride-hailing usage among business customers last quarter, an increase from 10 percent a year ago.

Uber still has 81 percent of the market, and the company noted that it’s working with many companies directly on expense billing, which wouldn’t be included in Certify’s data.

“We’ve also partnered with Concur, the largest global expense management platform, to deliver a seamless connection for situations where expenses are required,” the company said in a statement.

For its part, Lyft said some of its customers also use central billing.

“We will carry this momentum into the rest of 2018 and remain focused on making business travel easy, accessible and affordable,” David Baga, Lyft’s chief business officer, wrote in an emailed statement.

Last month, Lyft announced that its revenue grew more than $1 billion in 2017 and beat Uber’s growth in Q4 by 2.75 times. In fact, Lyft’s revenue growth was up 168 percent in the fourth quarter, while Uber’s increased by 61 percent.

“We’ve recently achieved record market share levels nationwide even as we significantly reduce sales and marketing expenses,” Brian Roberts, Lyft’s chief financial officer, said in a statement.

Lyft provided 375.5 million rides in 2017, which is up 130 percent year over year. The company also provided rides to a total of 23 million different passengers, which is a 92 percent jump from the prior year, and had 1.4 million drivers at the end of 2017, up 100 percent from the end of 2016.

“We remain focused on driving sustainable growth and making investments,” Roberts said. “2018 is poised to be a year of exceptional growth and industry rationalization.”

Uber did make significantly more in revenue than Lyft last year, though, with its fourth-quarter revenue at $2.2 billion, up 11.8 percent from the previous quarter.