Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news shares of Lyft.
Speaker 2: Let's check in on them because the company reported earnings
Speaker 2: after the bell yesterday, including record number of rides completed.
Speaker 2: We're currently up three and a half percent. Lift CEO
Speaker 2: David Richard joins us to talk us through the results.
Speaker 2: That for some there was a bit of something for everyone.
Speaker 2: The revenue number behave perhaps a little bit shy of expectations.
Speaker 2: But the sheer number of people riding with you at
Speaker 2: a record what's driving that?
Speaker 1: David, Yeah, I mean I love that fact, the number
Speaker 1: of the sheer number of people riding with us, because
Speaker 1: it shows that we're doing something right.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So I've been saying for a long time customer obsession
Speaker 1: drives profitable growth. We're now profitable. We're growing, you know,
Speaker 1: as is our ninth consecutive quarter of double digit growth.
Speaker 1: And in terms of customer adoption, you know, we've we've
Speaker 1: never had more riders and drivers on the platform. So
Speaker 1: you know what's driving it. It's innovations like Lift Silver,
Speaker 1: It's partnerships like our Door Down partnership. We just announced
Speaker 1: a new partnership with the United A lot of the
Speaker 1: sort of ecosystem work we're doing is really helping us
Speaker 1: grow faster than ever.
Speaker 2: And let's talk about partnerships when it comes to autonomous
Speaker 2: because that's where the future that the puck is moving.
Speaker 2: How are you ensuring that you're moving with it and
Speaker 2: taking on what seems to be future competition coming from
Speaker 2: I don't know, the likes of Weymo, but also even
Speaker 2: a Tesla.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, I don't think of it as
Speaker 1: future competition. I mean, of course there'll be competitive skirmishes,
Speaker 1: but big picture, as self driving cars come onto our platform,
Speaker 1: it's going to expand the marketplace. And we can see
Speaker 1: that already even in the cities where self driving cars
Speaker 1: are operating in the US right now, we're seeing something
Speaker 1: like five x the growth of cities where they're not operating.
Speaker 1: So because what they're safe, they're interesting, they're kind of
Speaker 1: you know, they're novel, they're reliable. In terms of partnerships,
Speaker 1: we have a couple of great partnerships. We have one
Speaker 1: with main Mobility, which launches officially this summer in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: so you can take a self driving car if you
Speaker 1: live in Atlanta starting in a little over a month,
Speaker 1: we hope, and then big picture. We just signed a
Speaker 1: big agreement with Baidu, who is one of the world's
Speaker 1: large just probably the world's largest self driving car company,
Speaker 1: to expand into Europe, into couple countries in Europe. So
Speaker 1: a lot of action going on the self driving world.
Speaker 1: Obviously still very early, but we see, you know, huge
Speaker 1: opportunity for us in the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Plan Germany UK twenty twenty six, David, with regulatory approvals.
Speaker 2: Speak to that international growth that you've really brought to
Speaker 2: bear of late. How much is that a winning formula
Speaker 2: for revenue for profitability?
Speaker 1: Yeah, for both, I think, and actually for resilience too.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I've seen over
Speaker 1: the last two and a half year since I've been
Speaker 1: in this job is being so focused on North America
Speaker 1: has been great because it's allowed us to really innovate
Speaker 1: and drive the industry forward. But now that we're in
Speaker 1: a very strong position, we can afford to and frankly,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of our customers want us to be
Speaker 1: a more global company. So we just acquired a company
Speaker 1: called free Now in Europe. It's a taxi focused aggregator.
Speaker 1: You know, the taxis in Europe, of course, you know
Speaker 1: this well, are sort of a high end product than
Speaker 1: people might think in the United States, and so it
Speaker 1: will allow us to have a footprint across Europe. Then,
Speaker 1: when we tie up back to your earlier question about
Speaker 1: self driving, as self driving comes to Europe and Europe
Speaker 1: is a little bit behind the United States, the relationship
Speaker 1: that we now have with regulators and of course with
Speaker 1: millions of customers is really going to help us form
Speaker 1: a platform that we can build on to bring self
Speaker 1: driving cars to the UK and Germany and hopefully beyond.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when you're leaning into some of these expansions
Speaker 2: more broadly, will there be more m and A to
Speaker 2: play here? You've already done it in Europe. I know
Speaker 2: you've got to integrate, but would you look further afield too.
Speaker 1: Maybe, you know, you never say never about this sort
Speaker 1: of thing, you know, I think we're in a very
Speaker 1: strong position now to do this kind of work. But
Speaker 1: as you say, the first order business for us is
Speaker 1: that integration work. And we just closed the free Now
Speaker 1: deal last week. I was actually in Barcelona the week
Speaker 1: before with a team there. They're so excited to get
Speaker 1: started and already now, if you open the free now
Speaker 1: app in Europe, you'll get a prompt that says, you know,
Speaker 1: we're a partnership with Lyft and and vice versa. If
Speaker 1: you open the lift app in Europe, maybe more importantly,
Speaker 1: you'll be directed to go over to free. Now we're
Speaker 1: just beginning that integration. I think there's a lot more
Speaker 1: work to do there before we really think about additional acquisitions.
Speaker 2: And David, you've got such sort of a bird's eye
Speaker 2: perspective on the consumer. Really at this moment, how resilient
Speaker 2: is that consumer, particularly here in the US people trying
Speaker 2: to read the tea.
Speaker 1: Least I understand. You know, every single day people sort
Speaker 1: of look deep in the teacup and try to figure
Speaker 1: out what's going on. All I can say is, if
Speaker 1: you're looking for weakness, look elsewhere. We're not seeing it.
Speaker 1: We're seeing record rides, you know, double digit growth, even airports,
Speaker 1: which people often look at as sort of a leading indicator.
Speaker 1: Now it's true, I think TSA volumes are moderating a
Speaker 1: little bit, but we're growing faster than TSA volumes are
Speaker 1: and we've grown airports now quarter over quarter and year
Speaker 1: over years. So it's such an interesting thing. I know
Speaker 1: people are sort of desperate to find, you know, sort
Speaker 1: of the cloud and the silver lining, but at least
Speaker 1: from our perspective, we're not seeing it.
Speaker 2: If CEO David Risher, great to have you back on
Speaker 2: the show, Stay well, Thank you.