Ride-hailing giant Uber boosted gross bookings to $15.8 billion in the first quarter of 2020, beating expectations that the coronavirus outbreak would eat immediately into the company's financial performance.
The 8% jump came largely from a 54% year-over-year boost in gross bookings from the Uber Eats division, as Rides declined 3% over the same period.
Revenue at the company increased by 14% between the first quarters in 2019 and 2020 to $3.5 billion.
Uber had previously said that full-year performance is likely to be severely impacted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Losses have now increased to $2.9 billion, Uber's earnings report for the Q1 2020 period noted, in part as the business launched a number of initiatives to support the driver community in the wake of countries locking down citizens and the demand for services drying up during March.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says: "While our Rides business has been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, we have taken quick action to preserve the strength of our balance sheet, focus additional resources on Uber Eats and prepare us for any recovery scenario.
"Along with the surge in food delivery, we are encouraged by the early signs we are seeing in markets that are beginning to open back up. Our global footprint and highly variable cost structure remain an important advantage, as our expectation is that the Rides recovery will vary by city and country."
Uber already started scaling back its sales and marketing activity during Q1, with spend falling from $1.04 billion to $885 million year-over-year.
As part of measures to cut costs, Uber-owned Careem slashed its workforce by 31%, while Uber itself has reduced customer support and recruiting teams by 3,700 employees.
It has also merged its Jump electric bike scooter business into Lime while leading a $170 million investment into the latter.
The combination of measures is expected to bring fixed costs down by more than a $1 billion.
Chief financial officer Nelson Chai says the business has "ample liquidity" to weather the coronavirus crisis, but some measures have been put in place to ensure it comes out the other side as a "stronger and more focused" company.
These have included axing eight unprofitable markets for the Eats division and reducing headcount in customer services and recruitment.
Uber says it has provided 10 million free rides and deliveries to healthcare workers, in particular in London and New York City.