The News
Uber isn’t seeing signs of a recession “at this point” in its ridership numbers or driver data, the company’s CEO said Friday.
“When I watch CNBC or when you read the paper, certainly the prospective news is not great,” Dara Khosrowshahi told Semafor’s Ben Smith at the World Economy Summit. “But when we look at our business, the day-to-day habits of consumers around the world look pretty consistent to what we’ve seen for the past couple of years.”
His remarks echoed what several other business leaders have said at Semafor’s summit this week: Consumer spending remains healthy, even though many analysts say an economic downturn is on the horizon.
Khosrowshahi said Uber is “recession-resistant,” because its revenues and expenses both fluctuate based on GDP. In a weaker economy with higher unemployment, Uber prices will come down, but so will the cost of labor, Khosrowshahi said.
Transportation is among the “everyday use cases” that tend to suffer the least during economic slumps, he said.
The Semafor View
Artificial general intelligence seems imminent, with increasingly capable robots coming along for the ride, but it remains unclear how increasingly powerful computers will impact the world’s knowledge workers. The billions of dollars companies are pouring into AI have not paid off, yet.