How Taylor Swift & Beyonce boosted Lyft's ridership

Shares of Lyft (LYFT) have jumped, initially on an error in a key profitability metric from its earnings report, but continues to trade higher on Wednesday afternoon. The company saw a net loss of $26.3 million on revenue of $1.22 billion, however, the company's sales grew around 4% year-over-year.

Lyft CEO David Risher joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the company's performance, the strike initiated by drivers for rideshare services, and how Taylor Swift & Beyonce have boosted Lyft's ridership.

Risher comments on how much of an influence Taylor swift has had on ridership: "For every new digital device, every new app on the phone, for every new goggle or whatever that shows up, there's just as much of a longing, if not more so, for going out and having real-world experiences. If you look at stadiums, year-on-year, we're up 37%, just trips to stadiums. When you zoom in, and now we'll talk directly about Taylor, it's incredible. Nashville, our rides were up 25% when she comes to town. If you look in Cincinnati, rides to the hotel, because a lot of people are visiting from out of town, were up 60%." And to speak to the power of Swifties, Risher notes, that Taylor Swift's fans tipped "three times higher than average."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

- Taylor Swift and Beyonce, David. You actually called this out. And the idea was there's a lot of people there going to these stadiums. They're catching these shows, these concerts. And we know they're taking Lyft to get there.

DAVID RISHER: Yeah. Yeah, it's so interesting, Josh. I mean, look, I think in a sense, like the big thing here, it's even bigger than what you're-- bigger than Taylor Swift. And now we're talking big.

It's almost the physical world fights back, right? For every new digital device, for every new app on the phone, for every new goggle or whatever that shows up, there's just as much of a longing. If not more so, for going out and having real world experiences.

So if you look at stadiums year on year, we're up 37% just trips to stadiums. And then when you Zoom in-- and now we'll talk directly about Taylor, it's incredible.

And Nashville our rides were up 25% when she comes to town. If you look in Cincinnati rides to the hotel, because a lot of people are visiting from out of town, were up 60%. And then here's a crazy stat that blows my mind. I think it's actually speaks very highly of Taylor Swift fans.

They tend to tipped three times higher than average. So there's this whole ecosystem that goes along with travel in general, events, and specific. And then Taylor is kind of her own thing.

- All right, so Taylor Swift fans, that's some insight. They're more generous. Perhaps than some may think they're incredible.

Let me ask you this, though, on the other side of it, David. Would you be concerned about slower growth if there weren't let's say in the quarters ahead as many concerts from these kind of superstars?

DAVID RISHER: You know, I'm not. And here's why. It's not just concerts, it's not just NFL games, it's not-- it's the Seattle Storm and Seattle a great WNBA franchise.

It's the Kraken also in Seattle. It's the thorn in Portland. We can do something interesting here in San Francisco. We haven't talked yet about publicly. So we won't talk about that today.

But so between sporting events, concert events, and then just frankly, humans desire to get out and about, I mean, that's a real thing. And this is what Jeff Bezos always used to tell me. He said, don't make bets on short-term things. Make bets on long-term things.

And we're social. And so you can see everything from Back to the office. Some of it voluntary. Some of it involuntary.

But still, concerts travel and all the rest. Over the long-term, these things will only grow.