Ride-Hailing Story of Giant Startup App Uber – The Journey of Becoming the Top

Uber – How World’s Top Transportation Company Made $80 Billion Mark?

Uber is a USA based technology company that provides various services such as transportations, food delivery, courier, package delivery, freight transportations, etc. They have a more than 70% market share in America for transportation service and about 20% share in food delivery service. Uber is a popular service provider in other countries as well and, it is one of the leading companies in this sector. Let’s get to know about the success of this company.

Fun Fact: Uber has received a total investment of more than $25 billion to date.

Uber - Key Points

• Startup Name - Uber
• Company Type - Public
• CEO - Dara Khosrowshahi
• Industry - Transportation
• Founded - March 2009
• Headquarters - San Francisco (USA)
• Founders - Oscar Salazar, Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick
• Areas Served - 69 Countries
• Revenue - $11.139 billion
• Income - $6.768 billion
• Website - www.uber.com

Uber - Founders and Team

The founders of the company are Oscar Salazar, Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick.

• Oscar Salazar - Founder of Uber, CTO from 2009 to 2011
• Garrett Camp - Founder of Uber, Billionaire Entrepreneur, Founded Expa and StumbleUpon
• Travis Kalanick - Founder of Uber, CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017

Uber - Features

Some of the features of the company are as follows:

• They provide a personal preference for every customer. The user has several options such as Uber X, Uber Taxi, Uber Black, Uber SUV, etc.
• They provide taxi rides at a minimal price. It depends on the customer’s kilometres, cabs availability, demands, requests made, etc.
• They provide several modes of transportation such as helicopters, boats, auto, bikes, etc. It helps them to diversify their business and cater to every kind of need of their customers.

Uber - Funding and Investors

Some of the funding and investors of the team are as follows:

• $1.6 million - Seed Stage, Brian Chesky, Alfred Lin, Founder Collective, Garret Camp, Mitchell Kapor, Jason Calacanis, Lowercase Capital, Cyan Banister, Naval Ravikant
• $14.1 million - Series A Stage, Innovation Endeavours, First Round Capital, Alfred Lin., Benchmark, Founder Collective, Lowercase Capital
• $43.8 million - Series B Stage, Goldman Sachs, Mento Ventures, Jay-z Carter, Jeff Bezos, Troy Carter, Bezos Expeditions, BeSignatures Capital
• $364.2 million - Series C Stage, GV
• $1.4 billion - Series D Stage, GV
• $2.8 billion - Series E Stage, Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates
• $1 billion - Series F Stage, AppWorks Ventures, Microsoft, 408 Ventures, Bennet Coleman, and Co. Ltd., Tata Capital
• $100 million - Private Equity Stage, Tata Capital
• $7.3 billion - Series G Stage, Public Investment Fund, FotRoss Ventures
• $200 million - Private Equity Stage, LetterOne
• $3.5 billion - Series G Stage, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
• $1.2 billion - Debt financing Stage, Morgan Stanley
• $1.3 billion - Venture Round Stage, SoftBank Vision Fund
• $7.7 billion - Secondary market Stage, SoftBank Vision Fund
• $600 million - Secondary Market Stage, TPG, Shares Post Investment, Coatue Management
• $500 million - Corporate Round Stage, Toyota Motor Corporation
• $500 million - Post-IPO Equity Stage, PayPal

Uber - Brand Name, Logo, and Taglines

• Brand name - The brand name of Uber got derived from a German word. It means ‘above all the rest.
• Logo - Uber’s logo got inspired by the atom and bit.
• Taglines - Uber has changed its slogans a couple of times. Its current catchline is ‘Get There.

Uber - Acquisitions

Uber has acquired over ten companies in the past few years. Some of its acquisitions are as follows:

• deCarta - 2015
• Otto - 2016
• Geometric Intelligence - 2016
• Complex Polygon - 2017
• Swipe Labs - 2017
• Jump Bikes - 2018
• Careem - 2019
• Mighty AI - 2019
• Cornershop - 2019
• Postmate - 2020
• Routematch - 2020
• Autocab - 2020
• Drizly - 2021

Uber - Business Model

Uber has a B2C business model. They connect their customers with cab drivers as the company doesn’t own any car personally. The drivers use their car to provide service and Uber as a mediator for both of them. Uber charges a percentage of commission from uber drivers for every fare. They charge a 25% commission from the drivers. Uber also charges several hidden charges from the cab drivers.

Uber - Growth and Revenue

Uber’s revenue for the FY 2019-20 is $11.139 billion. Some of the growth plans of the company are as follows:

• They operate in 69 countries and over 900 cities.
• Its valuation was $75 billion in 2020.
• They have more than 4 million drivers all around the world.
• Uber completes over 14 million trips in a day.
• They have completed more than 11 billion trips in the past ten years.
• Its stocks are one of the best-performing stocks in the NYSE.
• Their app has been downloaded more than 500 million times on the Google Play store.
• More than 111 million people used Uber in 2019 and, over 93 million people used it in 2020.

Uber - Subsidiaries

Uber also has a lot of subsidiaries. It helps the company in diversifying their business and cater to various customers. Some of the subsidiaries of the company are as follows:

• Careem
• Cornershop
• Uber Eats
• Zomato (9.1%)
• Postmates
• Jump

Uber - Challenges

Some of the challenges of the company are as follows:

• Pandemic - The ongoing Covid pandemic all over the world has hit every business badly. Transportation services like Uber have suffered losses due to the lockdown. People cannot travel so they are not taking cabs. It has lowered their demand in the past few months and, they suffer revenue losses in almost every country. Their business dropped to 80% and, the company had to lay off more than 6000 employees.
• Competitors - Uber is not the sole transportation service provider. It has several competitors in the market and, most of them are giving it a good competition.
• Strikes - Uber’s drivers have gone strike in several countries as they were not getting paid the promised amount. Their income didn’t increase as promised by the company and, it forced the drivers to strike against the company.

Uber - Future Plans

Some of the upcoming plans of the company are as follows:

• The company is planning to come out of its core business and try something new.
• They are also planning to include bus and train services in their app.
• Uber’s customers will be able to check the timings of buses and trains and book tickets through their app and website.
• Uber is planning to include an aerial-ride sharing system in the future.

Uber – Best Transportation Company

Uber is undoubtedly one of the best transportation service providers in the world. They cater to the needs of their customer by providing the utmost service to them. Uber believes in putting an extra effort to become the loyal partners of their users. They have a spectacular team and, with proper planning and execution, they are acing their game in this service sector.