Welcome to the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders for Uber Technologies, Inc. I'd now like to turn it over to Dr. Ron Sugar, Independent Chairman of Uber's Board of Directors.
Thank you very much, operator. The meeting will now come to order. I am Ron Sugar, independent Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Uber Technologies, Incorporated. I will preside as chair at this meeting, and Tony West, our Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, will serve as Secretary of the meeting. Along with my fellow directors and executive officers of the company, I would like to welcome you to our 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We appreciate your attendance, your interest, and your support of Uber. This annual meeting of stockholders is held pursuant to the bylaws of the company and written notice to all stockholders. I'll remind all stockholders to kindly observe the rules of conduct for this meeting, which are posted on the virtual meeting site, and some of which I will highlight below.
The only business matters to be conducted at the annual meeting are the matters set forth in the notice of annual meeting of stockholders and 2024 proxy statement, dated 25 March 2024. Only our stockholders of record as of the record date, 13 March 2024, are permitted to vote. We have allotted time for Q and A to allow us to answer questions from as many stockholders as possible. We've received questions in advance of this meeting, and we'll go through them, before moving on to live questions if time permits. If we can get to live questions during the meeting, we will limit each stockholder to one question, with two minutes for each question.
We do not intend to address any questions that are, among other things, irrelevant to the business of the company or to the business of the annual meeting, derogatory or otherwise in bad taste, or otherwise suitable for the conduct of the annual meeting. Subject to the rules described above, we will post answers to a representative set of questions that we are unable to get to on our investor relations website following the meeting. Recording of the annual meeting is strictly prohibited. Now, I would like to first introduce each of our directors who are standing for election today. Dara Khosrowshahi , who also serves as our Chief Executive Officer, Revathi Advaithi , Turqi Alnowaiser , Ursula Burns , Rob Eckert , Mandy Ginsberg , Wan Ling Martello, John Thain , David Trujillo , Alexander Wynaendts , and myself. Also attending this meeting are representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent registered public accounting firm.
Now, I'll turn it over to Tony for the formal portion of today's meeting.
Thanks, Ron. I'm Tony West, the company's Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. We're conducting this meeting in accordance with our bylaws and the rules of conduct, which are posted on the virtual meeting site. We've received an affidavit of mailing from Broadridge Financial Solutions, certifying that notice of this meeting was given and sent to stockholders of record as of March 13, 2024, via the notice of internet availability of proxy material, which Broadridge commenced distributing to stockholders on March 25, 2024. In addition, the board of directors has appointed Cathy Weeden to serve as the independent inspector of the election for this meeting. Her oath of office is with the secretary of the meeting and will be included with the minutes of this meeting. I've also a copy of the 2023 annual report, which includes financial statements certified by PwC.
A copy of this annual report was sent or made available to each stockholder entitled to vote at this meeting, and an electronic copy of the annual report is available on the website used to access this meeting. The notice of meeting and the affidavit of mailing, together with attachments, and the 2023 annual report, will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. On March 13, 2024, the record date for this annual meeting, there were outstanding and entitled to vote a total of 2,081,544,324 shares of common stock. I've been informed by the Inspector of Election that there are 1,722,935,258 shares of stock represented by proxy, or approximately 83% of all shares entitled to vote at this meeting.
The shares so represented exceed 50% of the total shares entitled to vote at this meeting, and thus constitute a quorum present to conduct our meeting today. The polls for voting on matters described in our proxy statement for presentation at the annual meeting are now open. All Uber stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting will have the ability to do so. If you are a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so via the website used to access this meeting. Please remember that if you have already voted by proxy, it is not necessary to vote again. After voting has concluded on all matters on the agenda, we will close the polls, and the Inspector of Election will provide her preliminary report. We'll now move to a review of the proposals.
The first proposal to come before the meeting is the election of directors. At this meeting, we are seeking to elect the 11 directors listed in the proxy statement for a one year term, expiring at the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders. Information about the nominees is contained in the proxy statement. Since no other nominations were received prior to the deadline established in the company's bylaws, no additional nominations may be made at this meeting, and I declare the nominations to be closed. We did not have any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any questions. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next proposal. Proposal 2 asks stockholders to approve an advisory resolution on the fiscal year 2023 compensation of the named executive officers, all as described in our proxy statement.
This proposal is advisory. Although non-binding, the vote will provide information to our compensation committee and to our board of directors regarding investor sentiment about our executive compensation philosophy, policies, and practices, which our compensation committee and our board of directors will be able to consider when making future executive compensation decisions. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any questions. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next proposal. The next matter to come before the meeting is the ratification of the appointment of PwC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Board of Directors recommends the ratification of the appointment of PwC to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm and to audit the company's financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024.
We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any questions. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next proposal. Fourth proposal is a management proposal to amend the certificate of incorporation to reflect Delaware law provisions regarding exculpation of officers, as described in our proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for this proposal. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any questions. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next proposal. The 5th proposal is the stockholder proposal submitted by Achmea Investment Management regarding an independent third-party audit on driver health and safety. Martijn Stam will be speaking on behalf of Achmea today.
Out of respect for the other stockholders in attendance and to allow ample time for Q and A, we ask that you please limit your comments to a period of two minutes or less. Operator, please open the line for Martijn Stam.
I would like to thank the members of the board for the opportunity to address this gathering of shareholders today. Fellow shareholders, safety first. That is something investors, Uber, and its stakeholders can all agree on. Uber drivers collectively handle an average of 25 million trips per day, and in its ESG materiality assessment, Uber identified their safety and well-being as critical for business success. Over the years, concerns have emerged regarding the safety of drivers and riders. As drivers report feeling unsafe while on the job, Uber's handling of drivers' health and safety has attracted scrutiny from the media and policymakers in a wide range of markets in which Uber is active, from the U.S. to India to the Netherlands.
Currently, it is not possible for investors, the company, and its stakeholders to assess if management is effectively managing this issue, as the current safety report, A, leaves out critical metrics. For example, non-fatal physical assaults that severely impact life are not included. B, only addresses the U.S. market, and C, is not fully independent. We filed this resolution for the second year in a row because we have not seen progress regarding health and safety reporting, and because the civil rights assessment that was published in August 2023 did not include health and safety experts and focused exclusively on the U.S. market. Regarding health and safety, Uber and its investors are driving in the dark and are not able to assess if the policies and actions from management are delivering and where they should be improved. We therefore urge shareholders to vote in favor of this proposal.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Stam. For the reasons outlined further in our proxy statement, our board of directors has recommended a vote against this stockholder proposal. We did not receive any questions on this proposal prior to the meeting. Are there any questions on this proposal now? I'll pause briefly for any questions. Seeing none, we'll move on. The polls are about to close, so if you've not yet voted, please do so. I will pause for three minutes now to allow votes to be cast, and during this time, we'll play a video clip highlighting Uber's platform. Since everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed. The Inspector of Election has delivered her preliminary report, and I will now announce the preliminary results. Mr. Chairman, based on the Inspector of Election's preliminary report, the following are the meeting results, including the preliminary vote counts.
Each of the 11 nominees for director has been duly elected as a director of the company to serve for a one year term that will expire in 2025, with approval of more than a majority of votes cast. The resolution on an advisory basis for the compensation of our named executive officers for fiscal year 2023 has been approved by approximately 90% of votes cast. The ratification of the appointment of PwC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm has been approved, with an approval of 99% of votes cast. The management proposal to amend the company's certificate of incorporation to reflect Delaware law provisions regarding exculpation of officers, has been approved, with an approval of a majority of the outstanding shares entitled to vote.
The stockholder proposal for the company to prepare an independent third-party audit on driver health and safety has not passed, receiving approval from approximately 8% of votes cast. We will file the final report of the Inspector of Election with the records of this meeting. We expect to report the results of the voting on a Form 8-K, to be filed with the SEC within four business days of this meeting. Mr. Chairman?
Thanks, Tony. That concludes the formal portion of this meeting. The meeting is now adjourned. I will now turn it over to Dara to provide a business presentation, followed by our Q and A session. Dara?
Thank you, Ron. I'm Dara Khosrowshahi , Uber's Chief Executive Officer. Before I begin, I'd like to pause for a moment here and let everyone review the disclaimers in regards to this presentation. All right, now that you've taken a look at the disclaimers, I'd love to start by thanking everyone for joining us today and supporting our company and our mission. We reimagine the way the world moves for the better. In service of our mission, we've built the largest mobility and delivery platform in the world, with structural advantages that are very difficult to replicate. Our aspiration is to be the default choice for movement of people and things, and for flexible earnings globally. Today, Uber is a technology platform operating at unparalleled scale and serving multiple multi-trillion dollar markets across mobility, delivery, and logistics.
Our reach is vast, with over 70 countries and more than 10,000 cities benefiting from Uber's technology and infrastructure. We're in a unique position of having durable business model, which can adapt to varying economic environments with highly synergistic business segments. With our mission and communities in mind, we've been executing against our strategy to build best-in-class products and then amplify them with the power of our platform. As we've scaled, that power has become even more clear. Put simply, we can acquire users at a low cost- at a lower cost and generate higher lifetime value than our competitors. It also means we can bring new products to market more quickly, more efficiently than others. We'll continue to relentlessly innovate, building world-class products for consumers, drivers, couriers, businesses, and advertisers.
Now, taking a step back, I'm proud of the incredible progress we've made in the past five years to build a stronger and more sustainable business to benefit all of our shareholders and to deliver long-term value. Today, Uber is stronger than ever. We delivered a standout 2023, with exceptional growth and profitability, including $138 billion in Gross Bookings , over $4 billion in Adjusted EBITDA, and GAAP operating income profitability. Over the past two years, we've continued to grow our top line more than 20% annually, while expanding profitability and improving the quality of those profits. Reflecting this progress, we were recently added to the S&P 500 index. Q4 2023, our results continued to validate the compelling long-term opportunity that we see at Uber, delivering healthy growth with significant and expanding profitability.
We now have 6.8 million earners and 150 million monthly active platform consumers. On a consolidated basis, we've seen significant growth, with Q4 Gross Bookings increasing 21% year-over-year on a constant currency basis to $37.6 billion. Mobility delivered a strong quarter with another all-time high Gross Bookings and Adjusted EBITDA margin, driven by improving marketplace health and broadening use cases. Consumer engagement in Q4 reached a new post-pandemic record, as our lead on driver preference is resulting in a better rider experience, and we continue to innovate on new mobility products. At the same time, driver supply trends continue to improve, and we're seeing very strong momentum in international markets, including in Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions. Delivery growth accelerated further in Q4, and our category position continues to improve in a majority of our large markets.
Our key metrics, like delivery trips, users, and order frequency, sit at all-time highs. We're also making disciplined investments in selection, non-restaurant delivery, and membership to drive further share of wallet and usage of on-demand delivery. The combination of these strong top-line trends and continued rigor around costs translated to Adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion and strong free cash flow of $549 million during the quarter. That brings me to what's next. We're keenly aware that the market is continuing to place a high value on companies generating and growing profits. We're leading our industry in this respect and are well positioned to continue enhancing shareholder value as we execute against our massive opportunities. Our focus on profitable growth has resulted in strong top and bottom lines that we delivered in Q4 and which we expect to continue in the years ahead.
At a recent investor update, we outlined how over the next three years, we expect to deliver Gross Bookings CAGR of mid- to high-teens and Adjusted EBITDA CAGR from the high 30s-40%, with 90% or more annual free cash flow conversion. We see this as a business that can sustain industry-leading growth at huge scale, while continuing to drive substantial operating leverage to the bottom line. Further, as we generate excess cash, returning capital to shareholders will be a key focus, and as you saw, we announced our first buyback authorization of $7 billion just this February. Finally, we want to deliver on those commitments while being good partners in our communities, focusing on economic opportunity, safety, and sustainability. At Uber, we recognize the need for partnership and leadership on key issues affecting our stakeholders.
We've undertaken a number of initiatives to address these issues, whether that be partnering with driver and courier representatives across the globe or committing to be a net zero emissions company globally by 2040, and backing that up by signing up for the rigor and accountability of science-based targets initiatives. As we support our commitments through clear investments and bold actions, as we work to build a stronger, more sustainable business and to improve quality of life for all of our stakeholders. In summary, we're excited for what's ahead. At Uber, we have leading global positions in multiple multi-trillion-dollar categories. At the same time, we're making disciplined investments in the compelling, sustainable growth opportunities that we see ahead of us... and the power of the platform will continue to deliver operating leverage, paired with compounding growth, to deliver significant free cash flow generation at scale.
There's never been a better time to build at Uber, and we're looking forward to continuing to deliver on our commitments and furthering our momentum in 2024 and beyond. So thank you again for joining. With that, Tony, let's open it up for questions.
Great. Thanks, Dara. So now I invite you to ask any questions you may have regarding the company and our business. We've allotted the remaining time here for questions, excuse me. So please follow the instructions provided on the virtual meeting screen to submit any questions you have. We'll attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, and as a reminder, if we're unable to answer any questions pertinent to the meeting due to time constraints, we'll be sure to post answers to a representative set of questions after this meeting on our investor relations page, which you can find at investor.uber.com. As noted in the rules of conduct, only appropriate questions will be addressed. We will first turn to questions submitted by stockholders prior to the meeting, and the first question is from Prabhat Jain. Does Uber have plans to start Air Uber?
If so, what's the progress?
Great question, Prabhat, and, you know, if you go back to our mission of reimagining the way the world moves for the better, I would say safe transportation over the Air definitely fits in that description. So we absolutely are looking forward to the day when air can be safely a part of your local transportation, and hopefully on Uber as well. Now, our plans are to do so through partnership. We have currently an investment in and a global partnership, commercial partnership with Joby Aviation.
Joby Aviation is a leader in developing new technology of vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that are electric and are much safer than helicopters, for example, because they've got multiple rotors and also have a much better noise profile, so to speak, because it's not one giant rotor, but it's multiple rotors. So it's much more quiet in terms of the sound profile as well. These vehicles, Joby, we think, is a leading player in the field. There are other players in the field, but we have invested in Joby because of their position and because of their technology and because of their management. We do have an agreement with Joby once they start putting these vehicles into the air to include them into the Uber network.
You can imagine this being a multimodal travel experience for consumers, where you can essentially get an Uber from your home, we'll take you to the Joby vehicle, we will make the delightful and quick trip in the air, and then, if necessary, take you the final leg through an Uber as well. This is really exciting technology that the teams are developing in concert with Joby. There is still some work to do, obviously, on the Joby side in terms of getting the proper approvals, making sure everything is safe, but I have very little doubt in my mind that, you know, come 5-7 years from now, you will have certain cities where some Uber travel through the air is going to be a possibility. It's something that we're thrilled about.
It'll help traffic congestion, it will be electric, so it will help the environment, and we think it will be an absolutely delightful experience.
Great. Thanks, Prabhat, for the question. The next question is from Patrick Ingle: As an active Uber driver since 2014 and a former 1980s Miami and 2008 New York taxi driver, why are there discrepancies between what the rider pays and what the driver receives? For example, while waiting for a rider, I opened the rider app and performed a comparison of the rider payment for a similar trip percentage for the amount I would receive. I've noticed on more than one occasion that I receive less than 50% of the fare, not including taxes and incidentals. When I drove taxis in New York, I received 50% of the fare collected because I used a company-owned vehicle. Rideshare drivers use their own vehicles and should receive more than 50%, preferably 70%, of the fare, but many times we don't.
How will you mitigate this issue?
Yeah, Patrick, it's a great question, and first of all, let me thank you for being an active Uber driver since 2014. We couldn't build this business without you, and you are the face of our service for our riders, so really appreciate your engaging with the platform. I do think that, as you pointed out, Uber's take rate can vary trip by trip. However, on average, it's been pretty stable over the past two years at about 21% globally, excluding the impact of, like, business model changes or accounting changes, or fuel surcharges that have been in place in certain times or have affected our reported earnings in certain times.
Now, in the U.S., it is true that our take rate is higher than the global average, but this difference is driven by higher third-party fees, and even more acutely, especially over the past two years, by the cost of commercial auto insurance, which Uber pays on most of our drivers' behalf, which results in much higher booking fees for the riders. Now, those booking fees are going to pay for the driver's commercial insurance. They're not going into Uber's pockets, so to speak...
So the cost of commercial insurance has been one of the headwinds as it relates to the price of Uber's, because as commercial insurance costs have gone up, we've essentially passed on those costs to consumers, which then, you know, Patrick, as you said, if you open up the app and you look at the price that the consumer pays, and then you look at how much a driver is making, that gap is widening, and the biggest reason for that gap is third-party fees and commercial insurance. If you look at, I think, the last CPI print, the cost of car insurance, not just commercial insurance, but auto insurance, was up 22% on a year-on-year basis. It's just an enormous amount. It doesn't make sense.
A lot of it, we think, is caused by, you know, certain abuses in the legal systems, et cetera, and we're in discussions with regulators on appropriate reforms with tort law, et cetera, to ease the price to consumers, and as a result, get a higher percentage of the fare to drivers, which we think is the right thing going forward. Now, despite that, U.S. mobility drivers earned about $33 per utilized hour in Q4, which is something that we are proud of. And again, our take rate does change trip to trip. If there's a trip where, for example, we think that a driver will be less sensitive to a price, the take rate for that trip may be higher.
We will then take the excess economics and invest those economics, reinvest those economics into a trip where a rider may be more price sensitive. But it all averages out to the 21% that I started with. Our ability to take rate up or down on a trip-by-trip basis allows us essentially to push more volume through the ecosystem, which is good for Uber, it's good for shareholders, and it's also good for drivers, 'cause drivers have more business to respond to one way or the other. I would encourage you, you know, obviously, looking on a trip-by-trip basis, it's something you can do, but I would encourage you to take a look at your weekly earnings.
We send a weekly earnings statement to drivers, now, I believe, around the world, and it kind of deaverages or, or it gives you the average of how much you have earned net of these third-party charges, during the week, and I think you'll see that number is significantly less than 50%, pretty much anywhere.
Yeah, Patrick, thanks for the question. The next one is from Peter Poon: "Will Uber stock go up?
Well, Peter, I hope Uber stock will go up, but, listen, we, we can't control the stock price. What we can control is how we operate the business. And we believe that, if we continue to operate the business the way that we have for the past couple of years, if we continue to operate, you know, the teens kind of growth that we talked about, along with the EBITDA growth, that we talked about in our last investor call, along with smart capital allocation, I think the probabilities of Uber stock going up are pretty good. I'm a big investor, just like you're a big investor, so I absolutely believe, but the stock price on a short-term basis or a medium-term basis is out of our control.
But I think over the long term, the probabilities are pretty good that the stock goes up, if we do our job and if we deliver as we have promised our shareholders.
All right, the next question is from Shakira Beverly: "Will Uber be investing in self-driving cars to help with the safety issues and to deliver the food to cut out the tipping problem some drivers are having with not getting tipped?
Yeah, it's a great question, Shakira. So, while we generally are not investing in developing self-driving technology on a proprietary basis, we absolutely believe in autonomous and self-driving technology as an important part of the future development of transportation. We don't know when it's going to be kind of ready to go to market at significant scale, but there's no doubt in my mind that at some point it will be. Obviously, that depends on how quickly the technology develops, the capital availability of the markets to be able to invest in the significant amounts that are necessary for self-driving, as well as regulators, who are gonna play a big part in terms of how this technology hits the markets, et cetera. Our strategy is a platform strategy, which is, we wanna be asset light.
We want to work with all AV operators to essentially plug their vehicles into our network, which is the largest of its kind, and we operate in the three large segments that have at least been projected in self-driving to be very big segments, in passenger mobility, in delivery of local delivery of food or retail generally, and then trucking as well. We have leading global positions in two of those three, and then obviously, freight in the U.S.
So anyone who's developing this AV technology and is spending often the billions of dollars necessary to develop this technology in many, many years, will have the opportunity to plug into our network and get access to the global demand that we have, to be able to amortize the cost of their research, to be able to amortize the cost of their vehicles, et cetera, and hopefully build a business together. So I do think that from a platform basis, we're quite supportive of the strategy. We think that a hybrid transition to autonomous is the right way forward, and that autonomous vehicles are going to be available for certain jobs, certain times, certain weathers, certain locations, certain destinations.
And having both human drivers and autonomous drivers, or vehicles available for a particular trip, is kind of the unique prospect that Uber brings, and the part that we will play in this ecosystem. So we don't know exactly when it's gonna come, but we absolutely are going to invest in the ecosystem. You know, and then ultimately for us, we think it'll be better, it'll expand the marketplace. And just as importantly, if not more importantly, you know, I think regulators will accept AV when it is safe. And you know, every AV driver will kind of have to take a driver test, so to speak, and safety is a very, very big deal for us and a necessary component of this technology finding its way into the Uber ecosystem.
Today, the vast majority of all of our trips, globally, 99.9% of them, end without any safety-related incidents at all. That is absolutely a necessity for this technology to get to scale and certainly get to scale within the Uber network.
Shakira, thanks for the question. The next one is from Lars Dyrhage n. With $1 earned on the Uber platform for every $700 produced in the world economy, and with about one in 500 of the global workforce actively making money with Uber each month, Uber's economic footprint at current levels exceeds most countries. As Uber's growth trajectory outpaces the global economy, does management foresee local, national, or even global voices of concern that the power of the platform is becoming too powerful? And if yes, how does Uber intend to respond to such concerns when or if they arise?
So, Lars, it's absolutely true that the scale of our business, combined with the fact that we're building technology that addresses the everyday world, how people earn, how they get to work every day, what they eat, et cetera, is a big responsibility for any company and certainly for Uber at our scale. You've kind of described why so many employees wanna come to work at Uber. It's our impact as a company. We have a significant impact on the world. That's why I came, that's why Tony's here, it's why Ron accepted the chairmanship of this company. The impact is something that we take very, very seriously, and we understand that we have a very important responsibility to all of our stakeholders in the cities that we serve.
Now, there are many, many areas, but three areas of responsibility as we work locally, that I would name are climate change and electrification, future of work, and safety. What's key here is for us to work closely with local constituencies, interest groups, regulators, to make sure that the direction that we're taking in these three areas matches the direction of our stakeholders, and we take the input of stakeholders as we move in these directions. For example, in climate change, we prioritize the net zero transition by 2040, without, by the way, significant reliance on carbon offsets. We are investing $800 million in resources to help hundreds of thousands of drivers go electric. As of today, over 140,000 Ubers are all electric on our platform.
These Ubers are, on average, Ubers are moving to EVs about 4-5 times faster than the general population, so investment is, is bearing fruit, so to speak. And the, and the way the investment shows up is EV discounts, driver incentives, charging, initiatives that help make EVs more affordable. And the affordability gap, is, is a big issue, along with the charging, kind of, charge anxiety is a big issue that we and other regulators are looking to take on, as we look to transition, and we look to be a leading part of transitioning to, a sustainable future.
I would also tell you that, our investments in UberX Share, and our investments in high-capacity vehicles, while we think that, those will be great businesses in and of themselves in terms of lowering the cost of transportation, they also reduce the congestion footprint, as you take, you know, as you put two or three, or with high-capacity vehicles, 20 people in a single vehicle. So, we wanna make sure that our strategy, again, matches up with stakeholders and where we wanna go in EV. We certainly think it does. As far as the future of work, you know, we are very focused on improving the quality of independent work for platform workers all around the world.
And for example, you see in the U.S. and Europe and Canada, we've actively worked with policymakers, platform companies, and social representatives to develop a newer approach at platform work, one where having access to protections and benefits doesn't come at the cost of flexibility and independence. The number one reason why drivers come to Uber or couriers deliver on Eats is because they can be their own boss, so to speak. They can pick the times in which they work, they can pick the places that they work... We think that we can combine that flexibility with benefits and protections, and we're actively doing so through active dialogue with local players all over the world.
And I would tell you that the economic value created on our platform, it stays local, and since 2016, drivers and couriers have taken home more than $260 billion in earnings since 2016. That's higher than the market cap of the whole company, by the way, that we've delivered to drivers and couriers. And we intend for that to increase significantly, as the years goes go on. And then on safety, safety is incredibly important. Again, we want to run the safest transportation platform on Earth.
We have actively invested in a number of safety features, you know, being careful in terms of left turns or avoiding them if you, if you can, the ability for parents to track the ride of their kids, or my wife to track my ride, video and audio recordings in rides. We're testing actually rider ID in certain US markets as well, so drivers can feel safer knowing that riders, we know the identity of riders as well. We have, I think, invested in and innovated around safety more than any other player in the marketplace.
And even if you think about the impact that we've had on drunk driving, a recent MIT research has shown that traffic deaths fell, traffic deaths related to drunk driving fell by more than 5% after the arrival of ride-sharing in certain markets. So I do think. Listen, coming back to your question, the impact that we have on societies, on local markets is significant.
There can be concern, as it relates to our using that impact responsibly, but what we try to do is make sure that we're having dialogue with local players in order to not just address the concern, but to be an active participant in moving forward society in a positive manner, which is, you know, part of our mission, which is, you know, to reinvent the way the world moves for the better. And that's taking our responsibility seriously on a local basis and on a global basis.
Thanks for the question, Lars. The next one comes from James McMasters: With local small and medium-sized business merchants feeling particularly squeezed at the moment with the impacts of inflated costs of food, goods, and employees, how does Uber plan to address these concerns to ensure that these merchants feel supported and can continue to thrive?
Yeah, I think it's a great, it's a great question, James. You know, we are especially as it relates to our Uber Eats business, whether it's local restaurants or local grocers, our supporting them by giving them access to more customers, and therefore more demand, is a huge part of our mission. It's a huge part of our business, and our strategy. We had a recent survey that was commissioned by us, but independently conducted by Quadrant Strategies. 81% of U.S. small, medium businesses said that Uber Eats is an important driver of increased revenue and profitability, especially in a tough economic climate, where kind of higher prices are biting everyone's pocketbook, so to speak.
We have also wanted to create a flexible kind of business models for merchants to be able to invest up or not in our channel. So for example, we have an advertising business where merchants who need more business can invest to increase the exposure that they get in our marketplace, or they can put in special products to lower price to consumers in order to, again, increase their, grow their business in our marketplace. And again, these are completely optional. Merchants can either engage in this kind of business or not engage in their business. And also, we give the merchants the ability to adjust menu prices as well in order for them to pass on the higher input costs if they want to prioritize their margins versus just volumes so to speak.
We also give merchants multiple pricing options for delivery service on the Uber Eats platform, so that they can really choose the option that best suits their needs, based on what they want to optimize for. Do they want to maximize volume? Do they want to maximize margins, one way or the other? So this is a very important partnership. Again, inflation is turning out to be a bit more sticky than anyone wanted it to be or predicted it to be, and we try to do our part to minimize kind of the hit or the pain on our community, including our merchant community.
James, thank you. The next question comes from Audrey Hernandez. She asks: Can you name a few areas that AI implementation could fundamentally improve the platform?
Yeah, absolutely. Audrey, I think that there are people kind of use the two letters AI in a very generalized way. I'd say, first of all, that AI or having the ability of having machine learning models that over a period of time are trained on data sets that improve their efficacy has been a practice of Uber's for a very, very long time. So if you look at the price that you get as a rider or the offers that you get as a driver, how we match a rider and driver together, or an eater to a courier to a restaurant, or the sort order of the restaurants that are offered to you versus, for example, me, all of those are driven by AI algos.
And these algos allow us to create a personalized experience, where appropriate, for users. And again, the more data that you have, usually these algorithms can get smarter, and optimize over a period of time. Now, there have been pretty significant innovations in AI, generative AI, that a lot of people talk about, which is kind of a different kind of learning algorithm, that I think a lot of people are appropriately excited about. We have focused on our development of our Gen AI footprint in a number of ways, but the couple that I would name are, first of all, our developers.
We have built a Gen AI Copilot, so to speak, that helps our developers kind of code more effectively, that drives better productivity for those developers who are using Copilot. And for example, we also have a copilot that increases the accuracy of our onboarding decisions and significantly reduces the turnaround time when someone has an issue, or let's say, the turnaround time of someone putting up their driver's license to identify themselves and are approving that license. That previously, it was done totally manually. Now you can have machine learning platforms learn how to identify the data on these documents, and often make sure that these documents are originals, not fraudulent, et cetera, many times more effectively than humans can.
So, that, along with customer service automation, for example, a virtual assistant that has been powered by AI, are other areas that we are investing in, generative AI. It is a very, very big, kind of, technical, surface that we are exploring. And we are seeing, as we speak, efficiencies coming into the marketplace, but this is a journey, and I think, you know, over the next 5-10 years, the benefits that we see from this Gen AI technology are gonna be multiple the benefits that we're seeing today. So we're quite optimistic about it.
Audrey, good question. The next one comes from Jeff Lambert: Is Uber considering a discount code or some loyalty program for shareholders as a way to reward us investors and get more of us to vote? It would seem that Uber marketing would be interested in converting more shareholders to Uber Eats or Uber users, and IR would be interested in attracting and retaining retail investors and getting more of them to vote.
Hi, Jeff. So if referencing a prior question about our stock price, you know, if our stock price does go up and we do a good job, hopefully you can afford to order some more Uber Eats or rides. That would be a synergy. But you know, more seriously, we don't have plans to provide a discount or a loyalty program to incentivize shareholders to vote. That is not the right reason to vote, so to speak. We want the vote to be pure. We want the vote to be about holding these shares. And so we think you should vote based on what you think is the right thing to do.
And then we're hoping that if you're Uber shareholders, you become Uber One members and order lots of food and go to lots of places, but we want that to be separate and apart from any voting considerations that we have.
All right, the next question is from Colin Duffy, who asks: Where does membership fit into your longer-term strategy? How do you intend to grow Uber One into something like Amazon Prime?
Yeah, Colin, I would tell you that Amazon Prime is an inspiration for Uber One. It is... Amazon Prime is kind of the OG, if you wanna call it, of next generation membership programs. And we very much look to a lot of what they've done as inspiration for ourselves. And you know, one of the keys of Amazon Prime, as you see, is that the benefits of Prime have increased over a period of time. You know, it went from just being a discount on delivery to now on so much more, including video, et cetera. And one of the strengths that Amazon brought to Prime was having the greatest retail scope, so to speak, and now even entertainment scope than anyone else, so it would just be crazy not to have a Prime membership.
We want essentially the same thing with Uber One, which is we're the only player that has global scope, but provides services in both mobility and delivery, and so the Uber One program is unique in its scope. We have more content than anyone else, so to speak, and more benefits than anyone else. As a result of that, our member base, last time we talked about it, has grown now to reach over 19 million members across 25 countries. As we increase member adoption, and members now spend more than 30% of mobility and delivery Gross Bookings . As adoption increases, we see just more spend by members. The average member spends 3.4 times as much as non-members per month, which is great.
And when they become members, we also see significant increases in their multi-product usage. So one, Uber One can be an engine for frequency growth of business, overall growth of business, but, but again, multi-platform growth of the business, moving someone from delivery to mobility, or moving someone from mobility to delivery as well. So it's very much a core part of our strategy going forward. This is a pretty young membership program. And as I started, we absolutely look to Prime as an inspiration for our building the program and what we build next.
Great question, Colin. The next one's from Emily Butler: What are you doing to incentivize Uber users to use multiple products on the platform?
Yeah, it's a great question, and I'd say first answer is exactly what I answered in the last question, which is Uber One, our membership program, encourages, gives you savings, both on delivery and on mobility as well. You get cashback on mobility. So mathematically, as the number of members increases on the platform, you're going to get a higher cross-platform spend and a higher percentage of multi-product usage. Multi-product consumers spend 3.4 times more per month than those who don't, so multi-product is a big part of our strategy. And it's a strategy that our competition can't undertake because none of our competition, or the vast majority of competition, doesn't have delivery and mobility under the same roof, so to speak. We also have a dedicated product team that are building cross-promotion paths.
So for example, one example of this work is our shared identity and payments across our apps. You know, if you sign in to one of our apps, and then, you know, you've signed into your Uber app, you open up your Uber Eats app, you will be signed in. We'll recognize you, we'll have all your payment information, so it'll be incredibly easy moving from one app to the other. We allow consumers to very easily switch between business and personal profiles. And on business, we see very significant adoption of premium products as well. And then on the delivery side, we've launched multi-merchant ordering that enables consumers to place orders from two nearby Uber Eats merchants.
For me, that means, you know, sushi from one of my favorite restaurants, finished up with ice cream, just to not make that meal too healthy. It all comes in one delivery, and it's an absolutely delightful experience. And, you know, it messages to me that Uber is more than just food, food. That there's a lot available on Uber Eats, and we keep expanding that selection, so to speak. So, with this multi-platform team and with the work of the Uber One team, we're quite confident that multi-platform usage is going to expand, and hopefully, you'll learn a bit more about that in our earnings release, coming up.
Great. Thanks, Emily, for the question. We've now come up on time, so that'll be our last question, and I'll now turn it back to Ron.
Thanks, Tony, and thanks, Dara. I wanted to take this opportunity again to thank all stockholders who've joined us today for participating. Thank you again for your support of Uber. Have a great day.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.