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Lyft 2023 User and Revenue Stats

Brian Dean

Written by Brian Dean

Lyft User and Revenue Stats

Lyft is a ridesharing service available in 656 cities across the US and Canada.

Launched in 2012, the app reached the milestone of 1 million rides the following year.

Today, 12.5 million riders use the app each quarter. And Lyft currently has a 32% market share in the US, an all-time high for the company.

Read on to find the latest stats on Lyft in 2023.

Let’s get right into the data:

Top Lyft Stats and Figures

  • Lyft has 12.5 million quarterly active riders.
  • Lyft’s annual revenue is $2.36 billion.
  • The quarterly average revenue per Lyft rider is $45.40.
  • Lyft has a 32% share of the US ride-hailing market. The company held just 7% of the market in February 2015.
  • 4,675 people are employed at Lyft.

How many riders does Lyft have?

Lyft defines an active rider as a user who books at least one ride through the app in a given quarter.

Lyft has 12.5 million active riders as of Q4 2020. Compared to the final quarter of 2019, Lyft’s rider count is down 45.41% (from 22.9 million).

Lyft has 12.5 million quarterly active riders

But in the 3 years prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Q4 2016 – Q4 2019), Lyft increased the number of quarterly active riders 3.47x.

Current Lyft usage has been set back to approximately the same levels as Q4 2017.

How many riders does Lyft have?

Here’s a table with the number of Lyft active riders since 2016:

Quarter, year Active riders
Q1 2016 3.5 million
Q2 2016 4.5 million
Q3 2016 5.7 million
Q4 2016 6.6 million
Q1 2017 8.1 million
Q2 2017 9.4 million
Q3 2017 11.4 million
Q4 2017 12.6 million
Q1 2018 14 million
Q2 2018 15.5 million
Q3 2018 17.4 million
Q4 2018 18.6 million
Q1 2019 20.5 million
Q2 2019 21.8 million
Q3 2019 22.3 million
Q4 2019 22.9 million
Q1 2020 21.2 million
Q2 2020 8.7 million
Q3 2020 12.5 million
Q4 2020 12.5 million

Source: Lyft.

Lyft average revenue per active rider

Lyft generates average quarterly revenue of $45.40 per active rider. Average revenue has increased 13.67% over the previous quarter.

Lyft average revenue per active rider

Over the last 4 years (Q4 2017 – Q4 2021), Lyft’s average revenue per rider has grown by 66.05%.

We’ve charted Lyft’s average quarterly revenue per rider since 2016:

Quarter, year Revenue per active rider
Q1 2016 $15.88
Q2 2016 $14.11
Q3 2016 $18.03
Q4 2016 $18.53
Q1 2017 $21.42
Q2 2017 $25.29
Q3 2017 $26.59
Q4 2017 $27.34
Q1 2018 $28.27
Q2 2018 $32.67
Q3 2018 $33.65
Q4 2018 $36.04
Q1 2019 $37.86
Q2 2019 $39.77
Q3 2019 $42.82
Q4 2019 $44.40
Q1 2020 $45.06
Q2 2020 $39.06
Q3 2020 $39.94
Q4 2020 $45.40

Source: Lyft.

Lyft’s annual revenue

Lyft generated $2.36 billion in annual revenue in 2020. That’s a decrease of 34.63% compared to the previous year, in large part due to the effects of the pandemic.

Lyft’s annual revenue

Despite the recent revenue downturn, Lyft revenue has grown at a CAGR of 61.92% over the past four years (2016-2020).

Here’s a table charting Lyft’s annual revenue since 2016:

Year Annual revenue
2016 $343.3 million
2017 $1.06 billion
2018 $2.16 billion
2019 $3.61 billion
2020 $2.36 billion

Source: Lyft.

Lyft revenue by segment

Lyft has two revenue streams: income from the ridesharing marketplace, and revenue from rental activities.

The rideshare marketplace accounts for 93.22% ($2.2 billion) of Lyft’s total revenue. Rideshare revenue fell by 36.42% compared to 2019 results.

Here’s a table showing Lyft’s rideshare revenue since 2018:

Year Annual revenue (share of total revenue)
2018 $2.1 billion (97.22%)
2019 $3.46 billion (95.84%)
2020 $2.2 billion (93.22%)

Flexdrive (Light Vehicles) and Lyft Rentals generate secondary streams of rental income for Lyft. The company brings in $156.02 million from rental activities.

Unlike the ridesharing business, revenue in the rental segment increased by 3.67% in 2020.

The Lyft rental business has grown 3.08x since 2018.

Here’s a table with Lyft’s rental revenue since 2018:

Year Annual revenue (share of total revenue)
2018 $50.59 million (2.78%)
2019 $150.49 million (4.16%)
2020 $156.02 million (6.78%)

Source: Lyft.

Lyft US market share

Lyft has a 32% share of the US rideshare market. Lyft’s share of the market has grown consistently over the last 6 years, up from 7% in February 2015.

Lyft has a 32% share of the US rideshare market

26% of American rideshare customers exclusively use Lyft. A further 12% use both Uber and Lyft.

Lyft US market share

Here’s a table charting Lyft’s market share in the US since 2015:

Date Share
February 2015 7%
October 2015 10%
February 2016 14%
October 2016 14%
February 2017 19%
October 2017 25%
February 2018 26%
October 2018 28%
April 2019 29%
July 2020 30%
February 2021 32%

Sources: Vox, Second Measure.

Average annual Lyft customer spend

Among rideshare customers who use both Lyft and Uber, the average annual Lyft spend is $169. That’s 31.58% less than multi-platform users spend per year on Uber ($247).

Across all Lyft users, extrapolating from the quarterly figures, the average annual spend is $181.60.

Sources: Second Measure, Lyft.

Lyft US market share by city

Lyft significantly outperforms its 32% national market share in some cities. Among the 15 most populous US cities, Lyft enjoys the biggest market share in Phoenix and Detroit (45%).

In general, Lyft enjoys an increased market share in West Coast and Mid-Western cities.

Here are the 15 largest cities in the US, ranked by Lyft market share (from highest to lowest):

  1. Phoenix
  2. Detroit
  3. Minneapolis-St. Paul
  4. San Francisco
  5. Atlanta
  6. Los Angeles
  7. Seattle
  8. Philadelphia
  9. Boston
  10. Dallas-Fort Worth
  11. Chicago
  12. New York City
  13. Washington DC
  14. Miami
  15. Houston

Source: Second Measure.

Gross value of Lyft rides

Users spend a total of $8.97 billion per year on booking rides through Lyft.

The company is predicted to process $12.93 billion worth of rides in the US in 2021. Which would represent an increase of 8.2% compared to 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year.

Lyft accounted for 32.32% of all the money spent on rideshares in 2020, up from 23.77% two years earlier.

Lyft accounted for 32.32% of all the money spent on rideshares in 2020

Here’s a table showing the estimated gross value of Lyft rideshares in the US since 2018:

Year Sales (share of total ridesharing sales)
2018 $7.89 billion (23.77%)
2019 $11.95 billion (27.39%)
2020 $8.97 billion (32.32%)
2021 $12.93 billion (29.3%)
2022 $16.67 billion (31.05%)

Source: eMarketer.

Lyft driver stats

The vast majority of Lyft drivers (95%) drive for less than 20 hours per week. 96% of Lyft drivers work or study alongside their job as a driver.

96% of Lyft drivers work or study alongside their job as a driver

15% of Lyft drivers are business owners. A further 12% are students.

More than half of Lyft drivers (51%) also use other ridesharing platforms. 38% work on delivery platforms.

Source: Lyft.

Lyft driver demographics

69% of Lyft drivers identify as members of minority racial/ethnic groups.

69% of Lyft drivers identify as members of minority racial/ethnic groups

Black, Hispanic and Asian drivers make up 64% of the Lyft driver base. By comparison, these groups make up 38.6% of the US population as a whole.

Race Share
White (non-Hispanic) 31%
Hispanic or Latinx 29%
Black, African American, or Afro-Caribbean 22%
Asian 13%

The vast majority of Lyft drivers are male, with women accounting for just 21% of the driver pool. 7% of Lyft drivers identify as members of the LGBT+ community, higher than the national average of 4.5%.

Source: Lyft.

Lyft rider demographics

47% of Lyft users identify as members of minority racial/ethnic groups. That’s lower than the 69% share of drivers who identify as minorities.

47% of Lyft users identify as members of minority racial/ethnic groups

Here’s a breakdown of Lyft riders by ethnicity:

Race Share
White (non-Hispanic) 53%
Hispanic or Latinx 18%
Black, African American, or Afro-Caribbean 22%
Asian 7.2%

Among Lyft riders, 16% identify as members of the LGBT+ community. The share of Lyft passengers in the LGBT+ community is 3.55x higher than the estimated national average (4.5%).

The median household income of Lyft riders in the US is $54,000. Canadian Lyft riders have a slightly lower average household income, at approximately $51,318 ($64,000 in CAD).

Source: Lyft.

Lyft app downloads

The Lyft rider app is downloaded 1.82 million times per month across iOS & Android. The Lyft driver app is installed 120 thousand times a month.

The Lyft rider app is downloaded 1.82 million times per month

The Lyft app for riders was downloaded 24 million times during 2020.

Sources: Crunchbase, Uber.

How many people work at Lyft?

4,675 employees work at Lyft. Headcount has decreased 17.74% since 2019.

The median compensation at Lyft is an estimated $179,000. That’s in line with the reported base salary of $180,000 among Lyft employees on an H1-B visa.

Sources: Lyft, Blind, H1B Salary Database.

Conclusion

That’s it for my collection of key Lyft stats.

Lyft is increasing its market share, eating into Uber’s dominance. And average spending per rider has continued to increase throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the business has undoubtedly felt the effects of the virus. It will be interesting to see how Lyft bounces back.

Now I’m interested to hear from you:

Do you think Lyft will ever be able to overtake Uber? How will it recover from the COVID-inflicted dip?

I’d also love to hear any general questions or feedback on the stats from this roundup.

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