• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 14, 2017

Combine a simple app with a great idea, and profits can’t be far behind, right? Well, not if you’re Uber -- or, at least, not yet.

Despite its massive market share and mobile prowess, the ride-sharing giant lost nearly $3 billion, last years, according to internal figures prov ided to Bloomberg.

That loss excludes the company’s business in China, which likely would have added to Uber’s losses.

On the bright side, Uber’s business continued to grow at a healthy clip in the face of significant headwinds.

From 2015 to 2016, gross bookings doubled from $10 million to $20 billion, while (excluding China) net revenue reached $6.5 billion. Still a private company, Uber appears to have released its financials to show it is weathering several recent controversies.   

Those controversies include an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexism and harassment inside the company, as wellas a boycott in response to Uber’s seeming unwillingness to support taxi drivers protesting the Trump administration’s travel ban.

At least among millennials, Uber’s reputation remains strong, recent research suggests.

In fact, among a sample of 1,537 millennial Uber users, 93% said they had no plans to ditch the service, according to recent findings from consumer finance comparison site LendEdu.