I think you are confusing the data presented by WSJ with an audited SEC financial report. Uber didn't make anything public - this is just data they presented, privately, to their investors who obviously know the difference. I mean, this data was leaked to WSJ.
Provide a link to the annual report for a single public company that does this and I will accept your claim.
Edit:
See the annual report for Priceline which owns Booking.com, Kayak, etc.
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/PCLN/5793618865x0xS10...
P.33 They report real revenue of 10.7B with no mention bookings
P.41 They report gross bookings of 68B for the same period