Brief: Uber’s Khosrowshahi ‘not optimistic’ on Southeast Asia profitability

Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo credit: Uber.

The news (via Reuters):

• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that he doesn’t expect the US ride-hailing company’s Southeast Asian business to be profitable in the near future.
• “The economics of that market are not what we want them to be,” he said at The New York Times DealBook conference in New York earlier today. “I think it’s over-capitalized at this point. We’re going in, and we’re leaning forward. But I’m not optimistic that market is going to be profitable any time soon.”
• Nevertheless, he ruled out the possibility of merging the business with regional competitors, as Uber has previously done in China with Didi Chuxing and in Russia with Yandex.

Why it matters:

• Uber has so far been unable to turn a profit in its Asian markets, where it faces fierce competition from homegrown players like Grab in Southeast Asia, Go-Jek in Indonesia, and Ola in India.
• Observers have suggested that for Southeast Asia, the US company might take the same route it did in China and Russia, where it effectively exited the market and left it to local players. However, Khosrowshahi’s words in New York indicate otherwise.