Lyft’s first international city will be Toronto, Canada

Lyft, the $11 billion Uber rival, is beginning its international expansion. The company announced it would be launching in Toronto, Canada, by the end of this year.

The company, which is in the middle of closing a $1 billion round from Alphabet, has been in hyper growth mode this year, launching in at least 100 additional cities across the U.S. over the last few months.

Now, Lyft is giving Uber a run for its money. New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber won’t be profitable in the U.S. for at least the next six months because of what Lyft was spending on growth.

“It depends on where the competition goes,” Khosrowshahi said at the New York Times DealBook conference last week. “Right now, we have a situation where Lyft is spending very aggressively to gain share."

This year, Lyft ate into Uber’s marketshare nationally, causing the ride-hail behemoth’s hold on the U.S. to fall from 84 percent to 73 percent.

However, Uber has recovered its business in some of the major markets where it took the biggest hit — with the exception of San Francisco and New York.

That said, Lyft, too, doesn’t expect to be profitable imminently given its aggressive expansion plans, according to sources. That international expansion will also likely continue beyond Toronto into other English-speaking markets, those sources said.

Furthermore, the company is operating at a bit of a disadvantage since Uber is already in Toronto and other parts of Canada. The company only began its driver outreach today.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via