Feb 5 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies ( UBER ) forecast

current-quarter bookings below Wall Street estimates on

Wednesday, joining a slew of U.S. companies in warning that a

strong dollar could hurt the first three months of 2025, sending

its shares down about 3% in premarket trading.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco-based company beat

fourth-quarter revenue estimates, as more people used the

ride-hailing platform for office commutes and its delivery

business benefited from strong holiday-season demand.

Already the dominant ride-hailing service in North America,

Uber ( UBER ) has been trying to convince investors that it has more room

for growth by attracting more businesses and teens to its

platform, as well as expanding to less saturated markets.

Its business-focused service reported a 50% surge in

bookings for the last three months of 2024, thanks to

return-to-office mandates, while Uber ( UBER ) for Teens posted a similar

jump, and is now available in about 50 countries.

Overall, the company's ride-hailing revenue jumped 25% and

delivery revenue rose 21%, both above estimates. It's total

revenue of $11.96 billion surpassed analysts' average estimate

of $11.77 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Gross bookings of $44.2 billion were also higher than

expectations, while net profit totaled $6.88 billion, buoyed by

a $6.4 billion benefit from a tax valuation release.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber ( UBER ) planned to drive growth in

2025 by offering customers better rates, in part by slowing

hikes in insurance charges, a major expense for ride-hailing

firms.

"To maximize demand, we remain committed to keeping prices

as low as possible, passing through only the insurance cost

increases to consumers," he said in prepared remarks, adding

that he expected U.S. UberX prices to be up marginally in 2025.

Rival Lyft ( LYFT ) has been aggressively working on luring

customers away from Uber ( UBER ) through competitive pricing and new

features, such as Price Lock that offers daily commuters

guaranteed prices.

Uber ( UBER ) expects first-quarter gross bookings between $42

billion and $43.5 billion, including an estimated 5.5 percentage

point impact from a strong greenback. Analysts, meanwhile,

expect $43.42 billion in bookings.

The midpoint of its first-quarter adjusted core profit

forecast of $1.79 billion to $1.89 billion was also slightly

lower than analysts' estimates of $1.85 billion.

Positioning itself as a major contender in the robotaxi

race, the company said on Wednesday that Alphabet's

Waymo will launch its self-driving taxi offering in Austin,

Texas, exclusively on Uber's ( UBER ) platform next month.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also said the automaker will test

its driverless car technology in Austin starting June, without

providing details on how it would roll out a paid service.