[arturhoo]

Supposing that the money collected from drives is able to pay for drivers, engineering and digital infrastructure, I'd guess that the big loss comes from the cost of growing to new cities.

Usually there is a international growth employee that comes to a city, establishing an office and looking for key hires such as marketing and operation analysts. At least in Brazil, they also spend a good amount of money hiring security for big events for preventing assaults from regular taxi drivers, lawyers and also paying the bills for when Uber cars are towed away by city law enforcers.

They are constantly issuing vouchers for free and discounted rides, as well as making promotional campaigns where they deliver ice cream or nail-care services for free.