Lyft - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Lyft 2Q 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode to prevent any background noise. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star then 0 on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sonya Banerjee, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Welcome to the Lyft earnings call for the Q2 of 2023. On the call today, we have our CEO, David Risher, and our CFO, Erin Brewer. In addition, Kristin Sverchek, our president, is here for the Q&A session. We'll make forward-looking statements on today's call relating to our business strategy and performance, future financial results, and guidance. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied during this call. These factors and risks are described in our earnings materials and our recent SEC filings. All of the forward-looking statements that we make on today's call are based on our beliefs as of today. We disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Our discussion will include non-GAAP financial measures, which are not a substitute for our GAAP results. Reconciliations of our historical GAAP to non-GAAP results may be found in our earnings materials, which are available on our IR website. With that, I'll pass the call to David.

David Risher (CEO)

Thanks, Sonya. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us. To start, I want to take a moment to introduce Erin Brewer, who joined us as CFO in July. Erin is a skilled finance professional and brings an incredible one-two-three punch of strong technical abilities, excellent business judgment, and great leadership. She's also a valuable thought partner. She knows how to drive growth and operate efficiently at scale, and she's an amazing leader to our finance team. She and I are completely in sync on the opportunities ahead, and I'm thrilled to be working with Erin to build a rider and driver-obsessed, durable and profitable business. Erin, it's great to have you here. Now we're going to talk about what we've been up to and what's next. First, our customer obsession and focus on strong execution is really paying off. The effects can be seen in our Q2 performance.

Rideshare rides grew 18% year-on-year, accelerating for the Q2 in a row, and standard rides reached the 2nd-highest level in our history. Active rider and drivers each reached multi-year highs, resulting in an improved balance in our marketplace. Relative to Q1, the share of rides affected by prime time pricing dropped by 35%, and a larger percentage of ride intents converted into rides taken. With more people getting out to work and travel, the market is growing, and with the strength of our actions, they're increasingly choosing Lyft. Second, we're doubling down on innovating for riders and drivers. We're already seeing the results of our April reorganization, with flatter teams communicating more effectively and making decisions more quickly. At the same time, we've opened up more channels of communication so we can hear directly from customers.

Through driver roundtable discussions, surveys, and our various public inboxes, including my own, we've been getting a lot of information about what we've been doing well and where we can still improve, and we're acting on what we're learning. I have been so energized by how quickly changes to our products can translate to better customer experiences. I actually want to go deep on this for a second. In June, we addressed some of drivers' top requests and pain points with the driver app, with a release that gives them more control over where and how they learn. Here are two examples: First, we made our proprietary stay within area filter more precise, so drivers can pinpoint where they want to drive and flex the area for pickups and drop-offs to within a five-mile radius. This is absolutely huge.

It means the drivers can stay within their own neighborhood if they want and not end up super far away at the end of the day. This update resulted in a 26% increase in the number of drivers who use the feature, in addition to an increase in driver hours and weekly retention rates. I actually use the feature myself when driving for Lyft to make sure I got home in time for dinner with my wife. It's a total game changer. The second thing we did is we upgraded our ride challenge bonus program to give riders even more choice. Now, instead of being offered a specific challenge, drivers can choose from a menu of options and choose the challenge that works best for them. It might be long rides or short rides. It might be working on weekends or weekdays.

Drivers' feedback on the launch has been really positive, with more than half of drivers saying these changes have made their overall experience using Lyft better. These kinds of updates have an enormous impact on driver satisfaction and preference, and that's really important to understand. Among drivers who use both Lyft and Uber, we have seen a 25% increase in preference for Lyft since Q4 of last year. In Q2, the number of drivers using Lyft grew by more than 20% compared to Q2 last year, and driver hours increased even faster, up by more than 35%. We'll closely monitor driver preference because we want to see it keep growing. Over on the rider side, we continue to see growth, and in particular, with Wait & Save, which is our most affordable rideshare option.

Wait & Save offers riders a way to save money when they aren't in a big hurry. This lets riders price shop within our app instead of going to the other guy. In Q2, Wait & Save trips grew by more than 40% year-on-year and reached new all-time records, far exceeding where our Shared Ride volumes ever got. Just to give you a specific data point that, that gives you a sense of how large this is, in New York City alone, we averaged more than 150,000 Wait & Save rides per week in Q2. You can expect us to continue innovating for our riders and our drivers, which creates an increasingly differentiated experience over time. Customers are reacting positively to what we're doing, and there's a lot more to come.

Finally, we're building on our strong brand recognition, reminding the world that Lyft is a great rideshare choice. Most people already know our company, and I feel this all the time when I introduce myself. Our awareness levels are super high. Surveys tell us that over 70% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 65 are familiar with Lyft. Now, as we approach the back-to-school season and the back-to-work season, which I'm sure we're all reading about, riders tend to change their habits. This is exactly the moment for us to remind everyone to consider using Lyft, particularly those who haven't used us or considered us in a while. In the coming months, we'll be teaming up with other well-known brands as a way to raise awareness even further. Stay tuned for that.

In summary, you all, we are executing well on our strategy of being customer-obsessed, and the results suggest this strategy is working. Riders and drivers want and value choice. It's in everyone's best interest for there to be two strong players competing for their business. By obsessing over our customers, we can continue to differentiate ourselves and grow this market, and we have an incredible team that's focused on these objectives. Much more to come on all that in the coming months and quarters. I want to turn it over to Erin.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Thanks, David, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I also want to thank the entire Lyft team for giving me such a warm welcome. I've been really impressed by the depth of talent and culture, and I'm excited to be a part of Lyft's next chapter. We have an amazing brand, a big market opportunity, and we serve an important purpose for drivers and riders. One of the reasons I joined Lyft is because it's a great fit. David and I share the same philosophies around building a durable, healthy, and profitable business. Today, I want to provide you some insight into how we're working together and what you can expect. First, we're building Lyft for the long term. We will be customer-obsessed, taking into account the needs of both drivers and riders and the corresponding health of our marketplace.

Second, we're pressure testing goals and commitments to ensure they are aligned with what we want to accomplish long term. We'll be disciplined and consistent in how we execute, both in the near term and in how we think about future growth opportunities in the business. Third, we're going to be clear with investors about our specific measures for success. We're focused on making it easier for the investment community to follow our progress and get behind what we're doing. This is one of my top priorities in the coming months. Next, I'm going to discuss our Q2 results and share our Q3 outlook. I'm also going to address our upcoming third party insurance contract renewals and provide some directional commentary about the Q4.

Before I dive in, I want to remind everyone that unless otherwise indicated, all income statement measures are non-GAAP and exclude select items which are detailed in our earnings materials. In terms of Q2, the rideshare market is growing, and our focused execution is paying off. Q2 represents a full quarter pricing rideshare competitively and roughly in line with the market, and the balance in our marketplace improved. We had strong driver growth and a strong mix of new and returning riders, with the average number of rides taken by each Active Rider, which we refer to as frequency, reaching the highest level in more than 2 years. With our renewed focus on delivering an experience that riders and drivers love, we've seen momentum across use cases.

Commute and early morning trips were standouts, growing by just over 20% year-over-year, and we had the highest volume of airport rides since 2019. All of that translated into solid financial performance in Q2. Revenue was $1.021 billion, up 3% year-over-year. This reflects a combination of strong rideshare ride growth, up 18% year-over-year, along with lower revenue per ride, given our focus on pricing competitively and roughly in line with the market. In addition, our bike and scooter system sales showed strong growth year-over-year. This was partially offset by a non-recurring legal cost in the quarter that was classified as contra revenue. Active riders were 21.5 million, up 8% year-over-year, driven by strong rideshare demand.

Lower revenue per ride naturally affected revenue per active rider, which was $47.51 in Q2, down 5% from Q2 of 2022. Contribution margin was 42%, in line with guidance. Relative to Q2 of last year, contribution margin increased by 10 percentage points. As a reminder, in the Q2 of last year, our contribution margin was affected by approximately $275 million of adverse development on our legacy insurance reserves. Excluding this impact, contribution margin in Q2 2023 declined by roughly 18 percentage points year-over-year, reflecting higher insurance costs compared to Q2 2022 and lower revenue per ride. In absolute dollars, contribution in Q2 2023 was $426 million, up 35% year-over-year. Operating expenses were $410 million, down 24% year-over-year, due primarily to our cost restructuring initiatives.

As a percentage of revenue, Q2 operating expenses were 40%, compared with 54% in Q2 of the prior year. I will point out that operating expenses were roughly $20 million lower than guidance we provided for the Q2. Our outlook assumed operating expenses would include the impact of a non-recurring legal cost, but this expense was instead classified as contra revenue, which I referenced earlier in my comments on Q2 revenue. Q2 Adjusted EBITDA was $41 million and exceeded the high end of our guidance range. This performance was driven by stronger rideshare demand than expected. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin in Q2 was 4%. We continue to have a solid cash position. We ended Q2 with unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of approximately $1.7 billion. Before I share our outlook for Q3, let me provide some framing.

We've entered the Q3 on solid footing. In July, we saw continued healthy supply trends as 25% more drivers used Lyft versus last year, and driver hours grew by nearly 45% year-over-year. Rider demand also grew in July, with ride intents up 17% year-over-year, and our conversion rate continued to improve both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. The share of rides affected by Prime Time also continued to decline sequentially in the month of July, reflecting an even better balance of drivers and riders. With our focus on strong execution and delivering for our customers, we anticipate rideshare volume growth in the Q3 of approximately 20% year-over-year. With that, let me review our Q3 guidance. We expect revenue of $1.13 billion to 1.15 billion, up 7 to 9% year-over-year.

This reflects rideshare ride growth of approximately 20% year-over-year, as I just mentioned, in addition to lower revenue per ride versus the prior year period, with our focus on operating competitively with the market. We anticipate contribution margin will be approximately 45%. The sequential improvement of roughly 3 percentage points reflects healthier driver supply dynamics in addition to lower contra revenue, which will not include the legal cost that offset Q2 revenue per my earlier comments. We expect operating expenses as a percentage of revenue will be 40 to 41%, reflecting an increase in volume-driven costs and targeted marketing spend, partially offset by incremental savings relative to Q2 from our recent cost restructuring initiatives. Finally, we expect Adjusted EBITDA of $75 million to 85 million and an Adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 7%.

I'd like to turn now and make some directional comments on the Q4 in anticipation of our third-party insurance contract renewals on October 1st. We'd like to give you our current best thinking on the range of expected outcomes. Our preliminary view of the Q4 suggests revenue will grow low to mid single digits quarter-over-quarter. Additionally, Q4 Adjusted EBITDA margin as a percent of revenue will be in line to slightly lower than the level in Q2 2023. This reflects expectations of continued strong rideshare ride growth year-over-year in the Q4, the impact of our insurance renewals, and continued improvement in our cost structure. Of course, we'll look to refine this view in our Q3 earnings call in the fall. Let me address how we're managing our third-party insurance renewals and what we are doing differently this year.

With the Q4 renewal of our third-party insurance contracts, we expect to have substantial visibility into our insurance costs for the next 12 months. Going forward, we've proactively changed the structure of these agreements to allow us to stagger our renewals in certain states. We believe this staggered structure gives us better optionality and is a better way to manage our insurance. Additionally, over the long term, we'll continue to build on the work we've done to bend the insurance cost curve through product and safety initiatives that help reduce accident frequency and improve settlement outcomes. Finally, I want to share a few closing remarks. We had a solid Q2, and we have strong momentum going into Q3 and the back half of the year.

We've improved our cost structure, and we're operating more competitively, and the team is unified and focused on delivering great experiences for drivers and riders. I am excited to be here. We've got lots more to do to build on our progress, and I look forward to keeping you all updated. Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star one again. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Stephen Ju of Credit Suisse. Your line is open.

Stephen Ju (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you so much. David, you've now been at the helm for about four months now. Is there anything you can share in terms of what projects you may have prioritized versus deprioritized in terms of resource allocation? You know, maybe this is a little bit too early, but is there a way to parse apart, like, how much of the volume growth acceleration is due, primarily to price versus product innovation? I mean, price matching is a, you know, lever you can probably pull once, but the service improvements due to product should be more durable. I'm just wondering if you can share any sort of perspective there. Thanks.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, sure. Awesome. Great to hear from you. It's Stephen, right?

Stephen Ju (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah.

David Risher (CEO)

Okay. Just checking. Great to hear from you, Stephen. Yeah, thanks. It has been. Yeah, I feel like the old timer here, you know, three months in or something like that, 100 and some days. A couple of things. First thing I'd say, just baseline, is our strategy of, of sort of customer obsession and good execution is working, and, and we can see it. You know, the results sort of speak for themselves, 18% up, year-on-year and so forth. That's super, super exciting. If you then go one level deeper to the sort of second part of your question, it's, well, you know, how much was price and then how much were other factors? And, and there's sort of an all-the-above thing going on, right? We're very focused on improving service for riders.

We're very focused on making sure our driver experience is great. We're making sure that when customers do check both apps, riders, I mean, they get a fair price, that allows us to start competing on other things. As an example there, Wait and Save, which I mentioned before, is a product innovation that we're very proud of and really leaning into. Same with some of the airport work we did in Q2 that allows people in some airports to basically call a Lyft as soon as their plane touch, touches down, and the car is right there. You know, how to split out, you know, what's price versus what's product innovation is a little bit hard. What I can tell you is, I would add a third thing to what's driving growth, which is a secular move.

You know, back to school is a thing, and that's, we're very focused on that. Back to work is a bigger thing every day. You probably saw the articles about even Zoom trying to get people back to work. That's a thing, and we're, we definitely play a role there. You know, there's some of all these things kind of going, but I think it's, it's kind of more of a story of firing on all cylinders rather than any 1 of those. Last thing I'll say is we got a lot more innovation on sort of the, the rider and driver side coming up, which we think will be step changey over time. That's longer term, but that'll start to drive even more growth.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

You know, David, I just might add to that.

David Risher (CEO)

Please.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

You know, in, in addition to the great progress we saw here in the Q2, our Q3 outlook and in the directional commentary we provided on the Q4 assumes continued strong rideshare ride growth in the back half of the year.

Stephen Ju (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Thanks so much for taking the questions. Two, if I could, you know, maybe following up on, on Stephen's question also, just what would you characterize as some of the key elements you feel you continue to invest in, whether it's on brand or product or differentiation, to continue sort of the, some of the growth momentum, not just in Q3, but going into Q4? I know it's early and appreciate the framing of, of, of Q4, but in terms of some of the growth dynamics in Q4, I am curious about how much of it is, is cost headwinds that will hamper some investments in the business that could cause a slowdown in growth or just elements of, of a lapping impact you're seeing versus the year ago period. Thanks so much.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah. How about if Eric and I will kind of tag team on, on this one as well? I think, gosh, on the first... Maybe, sorry, repeat the first part of the question again, just so I've got that kind of focused.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Just want to know what some of the key elements you think that you have to sort of lean into to continue some of the momentum and growth. You talked about brand-

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

You talked about product, service, elements of that.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I'll sort of start, I'll, I'll kind of build the stack here a little bit. It really does start with doing the basics well and operating excellently. I mean, we talk a lot about operational excellence within Lyft now, and that's a real area of focus. You know, remember, I mean, we're giving, you know, hundreds and millions of rides a year, small changes can sort of amplify to huge, huge differences.... And you can see that, you know, we've talked a lot about price, but you can see that in ETA, you know, the pickup time. Our average pickup time now is 10% faster than it was a year ago. That's really significant because that's, you know, every single ride, people want to get picked up faster. That's part of it. I'll start there.

You build on top of that some of the, the, the awareness-building, work that we do. This is interesting because we're a very well-known brand, and no one should take that for granted. You know, it's brands spend hundreds of millions of dollars and are unknown, whereas we, you know, we're very well known. I mentioned this in my comments, this is a personal comment now. People ask me, you know, "What do you do?" I'll say, "I'm the CEO of Lyft." People say, "That's incredible! What a great company." I sometimes joke that, and this is no disrespect to other companies, please, but sometimes I joke that if I said I'm the CEO of DocuSign, people would be like, "Yeah, cool." Lyft is a different thing.

People have a real emotional attachment to our brand. That's a great, great starting point and high awareness. You'll start to see us amplify that. Now, we're not doing Times Square jumbotron, you know, Super Bowl ad stuff. We're doing much more sort of targeted, focused social media work and other work with the press to get the word out. Really, the message there is Lyft is back, and you as a driver, excuse me, as a rider, you want both apps on your phone. You don't just want Uber, because both are better than... That, that choice is a very powerful message. That's sort of the second layer of the stack. Then you start to add on top of that some real customer innovation.

I'll, I'll, I'll give you, maybe just 1 example of something we're, we're working through now, and that's working very directly with both companies and even cities to try to help back to work, return to office, go smoothly and go well. I was lucky enough to meet with, the mayor of San Francisco 2 weeks ago and reiterated our commitment to helping San Francisco recover by helping people get out of their house and, and back to work. It's so important for our downtown area. Then, of course, we're doing that with companies too. I think we have arrangements now with, with Cisco, and, I'm going to forget, but Netflix, I think, and 2 other trials we're doing to help people get back to work as they come back to the office.

It, it's sort of all the above, and I think as Erin just said, a lot of investment going on here, to make sure that we continue to grow, and we're off to a really good start. I'll say a very quick thing on the cost side, and then Erin will point out. We don't... how can I say this sort of well? We have this insurance renewal thing. We'll talk more about that. That comes around every year, and we're doing things to spread that out over time. It's just a basic cost of the sector that we have to deal with.

Our strategy is first, of course, to get the best rates we can and to do as good a job as we can negotiating with the companies and the, the, the providers, of course. The second is, how do we figure out a way, frankly, to absorb as much of that cost as we possibly can, using all sorts of efficiency strategies and, and so on and so forth? Only after we've exhausted all of that do we, we want to pass any of that charge along to our customers, and we really don't want to do that if we, if we can avoid it. That's kind of the, the, the, the work we're planning. It's not so much about investing less in innovation or whatever. We've got, we've got funds to do that.

It's really, how can we figure out a way to cover those costs such that because we're customer obsessed, right? We don't want to pass those along to riders or drivers.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, thanks, Eric. You know, I might just reiterate that we do expect a similar level of rideshare ride growth year-over-year in Q3 and in Q4, so that's approximately 20%. You know, maybe you could clarify a little bit more by what you meant by, you know, not being hampered by investment, but just reiterating that as, as our, our assumption.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Just, just want to know if there's elements of some of the insurance costs you've called out that will sort of have an impact on the ability to redeploy capital back into investing in the business in Q4?

Erin Brewer (CFO)

No, I don't expect that to be a factor. Nope.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Doug Anmuth of J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Doug Anmuth (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Great. Thanks for taking questions. One for David and one for Erin. David, it sounds like you're making good progress with Wait & Save. Any update to the 30%+ of rides that you've previously mentioned? Just given the volume of rides here, how should we think about profitability of that product? Erin, just following up on the preliminary 4Q outlook, I guess just trying to drill down a little bit more on the revenue to understand why the insurance renewals are impacting revenues potentially as much in 4Q, because I think it comes up to suggesting, like, low single-digit year-over-year growth. Thanks.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, great hearing from you, Doug. I'll take the first and, and Erin will take the second. On the first... Oh, my God! I'm sorry. I just, I just totally lost my train of thought. Say the question one more time.

Doug Anmuth (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Wait & Save.

David Risher (CEO)

My apologies, Doug. Oh, Wait & Save, of course. Yeah. Wait & Save, we're not giving, we don't want to sort of get in this mode where we kind of always give exact, you know, data on it. But here's what I can tell you: It's up about 40% year-over-year. It is, and which is, you know, all-time record. I think that's, like, 25%. It's significantly higher than Shared Ride ever was. To give you a perspective on it, in New York City alone, in Q2, we averaged, I think it was about 150,000 Wait & Save rides per week, to give you a sense of the, of the, of the scale of it.

The second part was about profitability, and what I want to say there is, and this is something people hear me say around the company, they get maybe a little sick of it: First, do the right thing, and then do things right. The right thing is for us to offer an option in our app that allows our riders to choose to save money when they want to, and everybody likes a deal. Then over time, we're optimizing the profitability of that. Any portfolio is going to have some lower margin and some higher margin products, and I expect this will be a lower margin product forever. There's a lot of work we're doing behind the scenes to improve the profitability of it, and also help it power our, some of our other ride services.

Longer conversation, but short, short version is: right now, it makes us some money. Tomorrow, it'll make us more money. We love the volume that we're seeing, because that's a great place to build on.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, and, thanks, Doug. You know, just to be clear, insurance does not impact the revenue line. We gave you a top-line framework and a bottom-line framework. Again, just to, you know, give you a sense for our best thinking right now about the Q4. On the top line, you know, I think we've given you information about the trends that we expect. Remember, the quarter-over-quarter rate in Q3 reflects, reflects the take rate. We're also assuming pricing in the market stays at relatively consistent levels quarter-over-quarter. Hopefully that's helpful.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Mark Mahaney (Senior Managing Director and the Head of Internet Research)

Thanks. 2 questions then. One, on product side with drivers, sounds like you've made some real nice improvements that have improved driver satisfaction. Just going forward, is it leaning into those innovations? Are there other areas that you think are kind of greenfield opportunities in the market? Anything new on the regulatory landscape? It seems like that's died down. I assume no news is good news, but anything that you think we should watch out for? Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah. Hey, Mark, good to hear from you. On the driver side, there's so much more to do. There's so much more to do. The frame here is this: you know, drivers- you know, millions of drivers are making billions of dollars on our platform, right? That's a big, big deal. What it means to us is we have to take their needs super seriously, and this is something, again, we say inside, there are two customers in every car. There's a rider and a driver. On the driver side, a lot of the innovation you're going to see is around transparency, around making it easier for people to see, for drivers to see how much money they're making, right?

You've probably heard us talk before about upfront pay, which allows drivers to get a sense of how much- well, not a sense, a good, pretty accurate prediction, how much they're going to make before they accept a ride. You heard me talk about the stay within a zone type thing. We also have last- kind of last ride type stuff, so you end up, you know, close to home at the end of the day. Anything that can increase drivers' independence and control is something we're really going to lean into, and there's a, there's a lot more there for sure. On the regulatory side, I think, Kristin is here as well, our President, and she can give you more detailed answers if you want. It's, as you say, it's kind of died down.

I mean, there are some things out there, and we can talk about the specifics, but generally, it's, we feel pretty good with where we are.

Mark Mahaney (Senior Managing Director and the Head of Internet Research)

Okay. Thank you, David.

David Risher (CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Nikhil Devnani of Bernstein. Your line is open.

Nikhil Devnani (Senior Analyst)

Hi there. Thanks for taking the question. On the rideshare volume growth, I mean, do you think that this healthy kind of double-digit pace is, is sustainable beyond 2023? I think it'd just be helpful to hear kind of your perspective on the building blocks between customers, frequency, and pricing as you look out over the medium term. My second question is just around free cash flow. I think we started to see some cost takeouts coming through, but cash burn is still a challenge. How do you bridge that gap to sustainable free cash flow generation? Are you able to do that, you know, while re-accelerating the top line as well? Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Karen, do you want to take that one, or let me tag team?

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll start with the second part. You know, first and foremost, what I'd say is, you know, generating consistent positive free cash flow is definitely a priority for the company. You know, as I think about the near term, there's a couple of different things to think through, in particular in our Q2 results. You know, the first one is insurance payments. The second piece is cash out related to our restructuring programs, and we expect that portion to be substantially complete in the Q2. The third main factor is capital expenditures. You know, we have invested over the first half of the year in an acceleration of the mix of e-bikes, for example, within our B&S business. We do expect that to moderate over the second half of the year.

I'll just come back around to saying, you know, again, moving toward consistent positive free cash flow is a, is a top priority as we think about navigating for the long term.

David Risher (CEO)

Nikhil, I'll, I'll sort of take a little of the first question. I mean, we're not going to give specific guidance on growth over time, but I can say this. Two things. First, I think an area where both Uber and Lyft would agree is this is still early days for rideshare. It really is. There's so many segments, you know, I mentioned return to office. Anyway, there's so many segments that I think we're just beginning to penetrate and just beginning to help people see that rideshare really can make their lives easier. And, and I think, again, not to sort of over-index on, on COVID and stuff, but I think as you see people, you, you know, get to the next phase of their life, whatever that looks like, I hope it involves getting out more. I really do.

It's good for society, it's good for our mental health. It's certainly what, you know, a lot of bosses want, and you rarely hear people say: "Gosh, I wish I'd stayed in more. I'm a happier person as a result." I, I think there's, there's a lot of... by focusing sort of segment by segment, there's a lot more growth there to be unlocked. The other piece that I really focus on is frequency.... You know, a heavy rideshare user might use rideshare, you know, four times a month, once a week, maybe twice a week, maybe, and now you're getting to know quite a heavy user.

Think of the number of times you leave your house, you know, one way or another, and the number of times you therefore have to park your car, or drive, or be caught in traffic, or all these things. I mean, I know this is sort of, it's almost the sort of early thesis of rideshare coming back, but I really think it's true. I think we're, we're very, very early in that. When we, when we see, you know, back to work, back to school, and then sort of winter travel and, you know, so on and so forth, so we see lots of opportunities just for, you know, people to kind of get reacquainted with, and then hopefully even more excited with rideshare, with two strong market, two strong players.

Nikhil Devnani (Senior Analyst)

Great. Thank you both.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Gawrelski of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Ken Gawrelski (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks so much. I appreciate it. A couple of questions if I, if I may. First, I just want to go a little bit deeper on the full-year revenue growth rate implied in the look forward. Could you talk a little bit about the take rate on a year-over-year change? I think, 4Q22 take rate was up pretty meaningfully from 4Q21. Can you just talk about some of those elements that might be impacting the year-over-year growth, decel implied in 4Q versus 3Q, given the otherwise healthy dynamics you talked about? The second is, this applies to the Q4 and then also to 2024.

As both you, and, and your competitor have, step-ups in insurance costs, so cost per ride rises, how do you think about pricing in that environment? What do you think is the most constructive way to, way to think about the, the next 12 months?

David Risher (CEO)

Maybe I'll start at the end and kind of, and then work backwards, and then Erin will kind of finish up, Ken. Pricing, I think we're sort of where we want to be. Again, I think this is an area where, you know, we sort of made a big decision earlier this year to price in line with the market. Now, you know, really a lot of our focus is more focused on competing on service and differentiation and so forth. You know, I don't expect that to change dramatically. One sort of subtlety here, which I don't know that we've highlighted, is, you know, prices are not just the way we set what we call a base price, but it's also this Prime Time idea.

Prime Time, also called surge pricing, by Uber, you know, is where you basically don't have enough driver supply, you have to price it high to incent more drivers out there and to also sort of suppress demand. That's a bad form of price raising. It's a particularly bad form because, you know, riders hate it with a fiery passion. We're trying to, you know, really get rid of it. Because we've got such good driver supply, which we've worked really hard to get, it's, you know, decreased significantly. Just to quote that stat, our-- the share of rides affected by Prime Time is down 35% from Q1. That has a, you know, a revenue implication, right? We're actually taking less money, but it's good for our riders, and it's good for our overall market results.

You know, it, it's, yeah, revenue is kind of a funny thing because it kind of goes in both directions, but, but broadly speaking, we're, we're, we're kind of happy with where we are on the pricing side. Erin?

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, thanks, Ken. Thanks for your question. You know, so taking a step back, it's, it's obviously not in our norm to guide us two quarters out. We're providing some directional commentary. You know, this was really important to us so you could better kind of track our progress and have an understanding of the impact of our renewal. So you're seeing there in the top line, you know, probably a wider range of outcomes, given those dynamics, again, in that directional guide. You know, maybe a broader way to think about it is, you know, price will be lower year-over-year, kind of similar trend as we've seen in 2023, and volume will be higher. Consistent with what we've seen in the first part of this year, take rate is down year-over-year.

We expect that trend to continue in the back half, half of the year. The combination of those factors is what gets you to that, again, range of outcomes implied within that directional commentary for the Q4.

Ken Gawrelski (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Ross Sandler of Barclays. Your line is open.

Ross Sandler (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Research)

Great. Two questions, please. Uber likes to talk about half their growth in the long term coming from, like, the base single ride service, and then half from new products, like they've got Reserve, and I guess they've now got Shared Ride again. Is there a framework that you guys think about where, yeah, the base service can produce a certain amount of growth, and then as we think forward, you know, multiple years, some new products that might be introduced could layer on top of that? Any thoughts on that? I know we're not getting Gross Bookings right now, but, yeah, maybe with the fresh look here, could we request revisiting that idea?

Even though we're not getting that today, if we had to look at the rate of take rate compression that you guys have experienced between lower pricing and, and, and, you know, some of the, the driver initiatives that you talked about, what, what would that look like on a year-on-year basis?

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, Ross, thanks for the question. You know, our-- as I just mentioned, you know, our take rate is moderating year-over-year. We expect that to continue in the back half. I am glad you picked up on the remarks in my prepared, the comment in my prepared remarks about being very focused on, on giving guidance, on giving metrics to help you better track our progress in our business. Nothing to announce today, but just again, that's something I'm very focused on in the near term.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, definitely. I'll second that. Erin is very focused on that, and that's a, that's a good thing. On the first part of your question, Ross, you know, I think that's a reasonable framework. I, I don't know the percentages are, you know, a little hard to predict, but for sure, we have a, a kind of a base standard product, which is a high volume product. It has, you know, certain margin characteristics and a certain, you know, just kind of base characteristics. Then on top of that, you know, yeah, we too will build differentiated products and services that'll have, you know, typically higher margins. Not always, but you would expect that in general, and so on and so forth.

One of the things I was really lucky a couple of weeks ago to be able to be in a dinner with Jamie Dimon. He was very clear. He cautioned us, me in particular, about trying to make promises on things that the external world drives as opposed to Lyft drives. What I can tell you is, that's our strategy, is to produce a great, great base product and then do things on top of it. You know, whether that turns out to 50/50 or 60/40, 40/60, that one's really hard to know, particularly at a time when so much is changing in the external world about people's habits as they come back to work and so forth. I think as a framework, it's a good one.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Benjamin Black of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Benjamin Black (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. I'd be curious to hear a little bit about headcount. You know, after the two restructuring initiatives over the last few quarters, do you feel adequately staffed to execute against, you know, some of the initiatives you have planned going forward? Or, you know, is there a need to sort of add headcount selectively in the next year or so? Erin, just to double down on the, the sort of the early look into the 4Q, I was wondering if you could give us any sort of guide points as to how contribution margins should progress as well. Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Great. Yeah, let me start, Benjamin. On headcount, you know, it's, again, probably not such a great idea for me to give super, super strong point of view on that. Broadly speaking, I would say we're in good shape there. You know, you mentioned something about, you know, kind of incremental, sure, maybe around the edges, but basically, no, we feel good. We feel like we've got a team that's right-sized, that's got real energy. I would say that maybe one of the biggest impacts of the headcount reduction, aside from obviously the pain we all went through and the, kind of cost savings we, we get, is a real sense of, of kind of agility and, and quick decision making.

I'm really struck by the fact that we have meetings now where we pull together, you know, exactly the right number of people. We make the decision there, we make it quickly, and then we move on. So I think that's actually the, the, the great impact right now, and, and I'm not really tempted to then load on a bunch of new people. I don't think that's on strategy.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, and, and thanks. As it relates to your question on contribution margin, and, you know, our insurance costs are part of that contribution margin equation. We would expect some quarter-over-quarter compression in our contribution margin in that directional guide in the Q4. That's a reasonable assumption. Again, what we've provided in terms of a directional guide on the Q4 is EBITDA margin in line to slightly below the level we saw in Q2 2023. As a reminder, that's at 4%.

David Risher (CEO)

I'll just... I'm gonna triple down on this as well because I know it's come up a lot. You know, we are managing this business for the long term, and what that means is we're not gonna be distracted by a single quarter's bounce in the wrong direction on costs. We're gonna try to deal with those costs. We're gonna manage them. We're not gonna pass them on to our customers, at least to the extent that we, you know, that we are able to not do so. That's the thing. I mean, this is a choice we're making, right? It's a strategic choice that says, not growth at all costs, no. Not profitability at all costs, no. Instead, build a healthy business for the long term and not just think quarter-to-quarter on what happens.

Benjamin Black (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you for all that color.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of John Colantuoni of Jefferies. Your line is open.

John Colantuoni (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking my question. You know, when looking at all the different use cases for Rideshare, where do you see Lyft having a particularly acute advantage or skill set that you can exploit more over time to begin carving the market into different niches so that, you know, you're competing less on price alone? Maybe if you could just talk about how that journey could impact the PNL in the near term and long term. Thanks.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, I'll take a stab. This is an area where I'll probably be a little bit elliptical, because I don't want to signal our intentions entirely, but I can certainly give a couple of things that might be helpful. First, let's talk about building on our strengths, and I'll point to 2. 1 is in a particular segment, healthcare. This is an area where we've actually invested over time, and I don't have the stats at hand. Maybe, Sonny or someone else in the room can get them for me, but it's been a sort of fairly quiet part of our business, but one that's really worked. Yeah, here, Sonny awesomely just put a couple of numbers right in front of me. Our healthcare- healthcare, by the way, means not emergency healthcare, right?

We're not trying to replace ambulances, but it's what's called non-emergency healthcare, which we have authorization to offer in some 20 some states, I'm forgetting the exact number, which allows people to get to the doctor, it allows them to get to, you know, non-emergency medical treatments and so forth. It also there's an overlap with, with Medicaid and some other government programs. Those rides grew by about 40% year-on-year in Q2 of 2023. That's an area where we've sort of built a quiet strength. It's very durable. Customers really like it. It's very important in their lives. You know, if you look at how our demographics are going, that's going to be a real area, I think, of, of strength for ours....

We also just as a business side, have relationships with now a different sub sector segment with something like 120 colleges or universities to do some of their transportation work. Some of this, you know, that one's more sort of B2B, the first one's kind of more B2C, but in both cases, there are sort of segments of the population where we think our history, and, and skills can help us. Then if I zoom out one click, you know, brands are so hard to value, and, and it's really, really hard to say with any level of precision, you know, what our brand looks like versus, versus anybody else's. What I can say with a high degree of precision is that riders- well, let's actually say drivers. Let's use drivers because there I have the best data.

Drivers preference for Lyft, in part, is based on how we treat them, but it's also based in part on our values and how we're perceived in the marketplace, and that's true with riders as well. One thing I sometimes say, and I don't at all want to cast stones on the other guys, but, you know, I don't find a lot of people in love with our competitors. I do find people in love with us, and that's something we can really build on. We'll see where that takes us. I think over time, if you look at successful brands in the consumer space, and I'm talking about very, very large brands, you'll see that they have a... Their customers almost draw a sense of identity or affinity with them, you know, beyond the sort of basics of the product.

I think we have the opportunity to do that. I think our, our roots, kind of origin story and everything centrally give us that opportunity.

Stephen Fox (Founder and CEO)

Great, thanks for the details.

David Risher (CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of John Blackledge of TD Cowen. Your line is open.

John Blackledge (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great, thank you. Just any updated thoughts on market share in any particular geos, geographies that are stronger since Lyft implemented, implemented the competitive pricing? Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Yeah, sure. Hey, John, good to hear from you. A couple of thoughts there, super fast. First, on overall market share, not much more to say than what we've said, we're about 30%, even at 32%. I have to say, I know you didn't ask this question, but just so everyone kind of hears, we think of that as kind of a, in the aggregate, kind of a trailing indicator, not a leading indicator. Basically, when it's going up, we say, "That's good, because it suggests we're doing something well." If it's not going up, that obviously suggests the opposite, but that's not our problem today. Big picture. Now, on the specific geography or geography, that actually does get interesting because it's a good, again, kind of almost a warning sign or a positive sign that we're doing well.

I'll give you a little bit of data there. We mentioned in Q1 that there were a couple of cities, Phoenix, Portland, and Salt Lake, where we were at about 50/50, and that continues to be the case. That's really important for us because it says that with good execution, we can pull it on. It wasn't just a fluke or sort of a numbers thing, it was a real thing, drove it. That's interesting, and it's a good inspiration, let's say, internally. We've also picked up a couple of points in a couple of other cities, and I'll just point out 1 in specific. In Miami, we've seen 4 percentage points increase, just Q then, Q1 to Q2, but Q2 over Q1. That's great to see as well, and that's not an accident.

I mean, we're doing some work there, and we just maybe take something off of here, but it's not like we have to do crazy, crazy pricing things or anything like this. We just have to operate well and maybe tell the market that we're, we're back in business. Anyway, we, we look at that more as kind of almost, you know, whether we say the states are labs for democracy. Like, we look at them as the markets, as kind of labs for us to do some experimentation and testing. Then we see that things happen, and we can replicate that across the network, and that's a real, you know, source of power that we're tapping into.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Hey, I'm going to pause the line. This is Sonya, really quickly. JL, can you do a line check just to make sure that the line is still functioning properly, please?

Operator (participant)

At the moment, you're not sounding clear. I don't know if the mic has shifted or something, but, is there anything you can do on your end?

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Let's try muting and unmuting, one second. Okay, let's see if that helps.

David Risher (CEO)

Okay. I was also leaning back a little, maybe part too far.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Better?

Operator (participant)

You're sounding better. Yes.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Okay.

David Risher (CEO)

John, did you hear the answer to that question?

John Blackledge (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah. No, I think that, that was super helpful. Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Fox, of Fox Advisors. Your line is open.

Stephen Fox (Founder and CEO)

Hi, good afternoon. I was just wondering if you could provide a little bit more color around the micromobility results during the quarter, and then, to the extent that you're able, give us a sense for how you think those businesses, including the recent acquisition that was done before you, you came aboard, you know, best fit from an ownership structure at this point.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah. Thanks, thanks so much. I'll start off with the question. In terms of our micromobility business, you know, as you think about Lyft overall, the vast majority of our business is rideshare, so micromobility is still a small portion of the overall total. You know, if we look at this year-over-year, we certainly did grow at a faster rate in the micromobility business. As a reminder, we closed the PBSC acquisition in the Q2 of last year, also, frankly, our ride volume is up. You know, some great stats, like in New York City, we support more than 100,000 bike rides every day, the Citi Bike system.

Increasingly, as e-bikes are becoming more prevalent across the fleet, that's an opportunity to have each ride, be more valuable, if you will, overall on that revenue line. So good progress there, but again, this is still a relatively small portion of our overall business.

David Risher (CEO)

I'll, I'll add just that, that, Stephen Ju. As Erin Brewer said, you know, financially-

... so on an income statement, you know, it's not a, it's not super, super significant. What I think is really interesting about this space is, you know, e-bikes are growing fast. They really are. Anne just mentioned 100,000. It actually gets up to 140,000 some days just in their city alone. We just opened up a fifth station here in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. That was significant for this city. You know, it's e-bikes in particular are good for cities because they're green and easy to get around and so forth, and they're good for people, you know, healthy and, and so forth. They tend to be sort of viral. Once you take an e-bike, you tend to tell a bunch of friends.

You know, we see it, and cities see it, I think importantly, as an increasingly important part of their transportation ecosystem. If you've... Certainly, if you've traveled overseas to places like London and Paris, you know, 10 years ago you wouldn't have thought of those as particularly bike-friendly cities, and now bikes are everywhere. That, that's probably representative of where more cities in the world will go. Density is important, lucidity is important. We've gotten nice incoming interest in partnerships from companies that really understand city-level infrastructure, we're in conversations, but nothing more to report.

Eric Sheridan (Managing Director and the Head of U.S. Internet Equity Research)

Thanks very much.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Stephen, was every part of that answer clear? I'm just making sure that the sound was okay.

Operator (participant)

Yes, I could hear everything that was being answered in the call on that one.

Sonya Banerjee (VP, Head of Investor Relations)

Okay, super.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Lloyd Walmsley of UBS. Your line is open.

Lloyd Walmsley (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great, thanks. 2, if I can. First, Erin, thanks a lot for the early help on 4Q. Sorry to beat a dead horse on that one, maybe just asking in another way, looking at the typical sequential revenue, the outlook looks a little light versus typical. I think you mentioned earlier an assumption that pricing- you assume pricing is flat. Is that atypical and maybe that explains slower, slower than normal Q-over-Q growth, or are there any other assumptions in there, maybe just conservatism since it's far out, that might explain that? Second one, on Contra, forgive me if it's if I missed it earlier, you mentioned something about legal, I think legal charges in Contra.

How should we think about Contra, in kind of 2Q, Q3, Q4 of this year? Thanks.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah. Thanks, thanks, Lloyd, for the question. You know, again, just framing up that directional guide for Q4, you know, probably we're giving you a broader range of outcomes because it's not typical for us to, you know, give this kind of directional commentary two quarters out. You know, the second thing I'd point to is my comments about a moderating take rate. I think that hopefully will then be helpful as you think about the trends you were referring to sequentially and year-over-year. As it relates to Contra revenue, your question was about, I think trends there. The balance in our marketplace, so the balance between supply and demand has gotten healthier and healthier, our incentive costs per ride has continued to decline.

I think that really reflects a more efficient use of those, of those dollars over the volume, and we expect that trend to continue in the Q3 and into the back half of the year.

Lloyd Walmsley (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rohit Kulkarni of Roth MKM. Your line is open.

Rohit Kulkarni (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, thank you. I guess, David, just a high-level, kind of personal question. You've hired a whole bunch of new people in the team while restructuring many of the people. Just maybe, thoughts on where do you feel the team is right now in terms of people who report directly to, to you, as well as kind of one level below? Any, any holes to fill or any new roles that you think of that you need to kind of create or develop? Then just, just on, kind of just drawing out, since we are talking about 4 Q, I can't help but wonder how insurance and how, kind of contribution margins could shake out early next year.

To the extent you can, maybe give us a color on, is insurance renewal and how you feel that shakes out, is going to put kind of first half 2024 pressure on first half 2024 in the contribution margins as well. Okay. Thank you.

David Risher (CEO)

Sure. I'll take the first part and then I'll take the second. On team, I have an awesome team, an awesome team. One of the things that I would say with all sincerity is, if you guys could sit in on our meetings or, or track our email, you would be blown away by how focused people are, how hard they're working, both individually and collectively, and collectively is super, super important. And I think that's one of the... Maybe that's an area where I've added something to the team. There's really kind of a super team as, as a group and really working hard and well together. There's really only one open position on my team, and that's for the Chief Marketing Officer. We've got some great candidates and expecting more about that soon.

That's, that's really the only, the only goal. Otherwise, I feel super, super good about, about that. Yeah, I think that's, that's, that's that.

Erin Brewer (CFO)

Yeah, thanks, thanks for the question. We remain on track to announce new long-term targets, and our intention would be to do that around the time of our Q4 results. Again, a near-time, a near-term priority for me. Maybe just taking a step back and thinking about unit economics. In a broader context, we've talked a little bit about our strategy around price. David talked a lot about, you know, volume and growth, and in particular, the balance that we're seeing and the healthy balance that we're seeing in our, in our marketplace overall. Of course, there's mix.

You know, for example, making choices and shopping within our app, you know, the opportunity to create new features and products, and then higher margin opportunities like Media, which today is, you know, relatively small business, but it's up 4 times the level of what it was in the prior year, and I think has broader opportunities for growth. You know, as I think about costs, we've talked about our strategy around driver and driver pay and continuing to make this a great experience for our drivers. We've chatted a little bit about insurance, and then, you know, we've made progress on our overall cost structure. As I step back and think about those broader drivers, you know, I see continued opportunity for healthy unit economics and contribution as I think about the business overall.

again, We are planning to announce new long-term targets and more to come. Stay tuned.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to David for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

David Risher (CEO)

Oh, I just want to thank you so much, both for your time today, but also your ongoing interest and focus on this. It's, we know it's been a bit of a ride, and I hope you hear from us a real dedication and focus on, yes, customer obsession, building a healthy business, but also as a new model of our business. Just to leave also, thanks to Erin. This is her first call today, I've said, since we got this. Erin, welcome to the team. Thank you, all. We look forward to keeping you in touch and up to date. We'll talk to you soon.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.