What's going on?

Uber upped its quarterly profit forecast on Monday, and the US ride-hailing service could get used to traveling in this sort of style.

What does this mean?

Uber was the first to admit at its earnings update last month that its hopes for this quarter weren�t too high, pointing out that Omicron could impact its ride-hailing business for some time. It needn�t have worried: workers have been heading back to the office, social lives have picked up, and airport bookings � some of Uber�s most profitable routes � were up 50% last month compared to the one before. In fact, the company only saw 10% fewer bookings last month than they did in February 2019. Meanwhile, pandemic habits are dying hard, with bookings for food delivery service UberEats reaching an all-time high in February. Uber�s not doubting itself anymore: it upped its profit forecast for this quarter, and investors sent its shares up 4%.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Do your wurst.
UberEats has made big strides during the pandemic: the service posted its first-ever profit last quarter, and its European segment has more than tripled in size since the outbreak. That might be why Uber announced last week that it�s planning to expand UberEats� presence in Germany, and cater to around 70 of its cities ��up from 14 today � by the end of the year.

Zooming out: A $1 billion-shaped hole.
Uber isn�t the only one doubling down on the potential of food delivery: rival service Just Eat announced last week that it made a loss of more than $1 billion for 2021, in part because it bought US food delivery company Grubhub last year for $7 billion. But it also said it�s expecting to �rapidly� swing back into profit as its big-ticket purchases start to pay off, and investors seemed to buy it: they initially sent Just Eat’s shares up 8%.