People who drive for Uber or Lyft for a living are seeing demand for their services fall sharply in many major urban areas because of restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Uber's chief financial officer said that in some areas, like Seattle, rides have tanked by about half.

He's confident that demand for rides will bounce back quickly after watching the market come back to life in Hong Kong, which recently lifted its lockdown.

Earnest Research, which analyzes consumer credit-card spending, also showed some bright spots where rides are still doing well.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Monday, Uber told its 22,000 employees that it had put a hiring freeze in place until the end of May to contain costs while the coronavirus crisis spreads throughout the world.

The company has seen usage of its primary service, ride-hailing, decline by as much as 50% in locked-down cities like Seattle, where employees are working from home and retail, entertainment, and nonessential services are shuttered, Uber Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Uber Eats, which accounts for about 25% of Uber's gross bookings, has maintained demand, Chai said. While eat-in restaurants are banned in some cities, or being avoided in others, food delivery is still allowed just about everywhere. In fact, Uber has announced a plan to help 100,000 restaurants stay alive by ditching its delivery fees and increasing marketing.

Chai was confident that Uber would bounce back quickly for two reasons. One is that he's looking at Hong Kong, which recently lifted its lockdown. Rides in Hong Kong are quickly bouncing back, Chai said, as people slowly get back to a more normal routine. They were down 45% and are now down 30%.

The other reason is that the company has plenty of cash on hand.

"It's not about profits and losses; it's about liquidity in order to make it through this crisis," he said. Chai said the company has $10 billion in cash on hand, and payments on the company's long-term debt won't start coming due until 2023.

Lyft, which declined to comment on the fate of its ride-hailing business, is also suffering, according to data on consumer credit-card spending analyzed by Earnest Research.

Both Uber and Lyft have promised to pay drivers who have the virus or have been ordered to quarantine up to two weeks' pay, with Uber saying that the pay would be based on average daily earnings over a six-month period.

But the worrisome part is that such an offer doesn't help all the other drivers who depend on ride-hailing demand for a living.

If there's a silver lining in these numbers, it's that when it factored in larger urban areas (not single cities), Earnest's research showed that demand has not cratered everywhere for everyone. In the New York tristate area, for instance, ridership was up as people avoided public transportation, which is crowded.

Earnest's data showed the locked-down Seattle area is down the most for both companies but that the New York area was still using ride-hailing services as of last week. The numbers can be expected to dip as the tristate area increases its restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.

Here's the latest data on how ride-hailing workers have been affected by the virus, based on core-based statistical areas, which refer to designated regions.

Earnest Research

Are you an Uber or Lyft insider with insight to share? Contact Julie Bort via email at jbort@businessinsider.com or on encrypted chat app Signal at (970) 430-6112 (no PR inquiries, please). Open DMs on Twitter @Julie188.



