The History Of Uber, What It Is, And what is Uber net worth?
Uber Net Worth: Uber Technologies, Inc., commonly known as Uber, is an American technology company. Its services include ride-hailing, food delivery (Uber Eats), couriers, package delivery, freight transportation, and, through a partnership with Lime, electric bicycle and motorized scooter rental. As of 2022, Uber’s Net Worth is $15 Billion.
UBER Biodata
| Legal Name |
Uber Technologies, Inc.
|
| Founded |
March 2009
|
| Founders | Garrett Camp Travis Kalanick |
| Net Worth | $15 Billion |
| Products of Company | ride-hailing, food delivery, package delivery, couriers, freight transportation |
| CEO | Dara Khosrowshahi |
| Number of Employees: | 27000+ |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Area served | 69 countries, over 900 metropolitan areas |
| Age | 12 years |
Uber annual revenue
| Year | Revenue |
| 2014 | $0.4 billion |
| 2015 | $1.7 billion |
| 2016 | $5 billion |
| 2017 | $7.9 billion |
| 2018 | $11.3 billion |
| 2019 | $14.1 billion |
| 2020 | $11.1 billion |
Source: Uber
Initially, the process of creating Uber was to consolidate itself as one of the most important transport technology companies in the world; And despite facing many setbacks, today it is considered one of the startups with the most reach.
If you want to find out how this was achieved, follow me and I’ll tell you.
Initially, Uber was established as a company that aimed to find a solution to the great transportation problem in the world’s major metropolises, but this approach has been updated and services have been greatly improved.
The growth of the company has been in leaps and bounds; And what started out as a company worth about 60 million dollars 💸, in just ten years it was positioned as a company of 50 billion dollars.
THE HISTORY OF UBER
It all begins in 2008, when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, spent a rich afternoon in the city of Paris, 🗼 When wanting to return to their destinations, they saw that they could not get how to get there, there was no transportation service available at that time.
That’s when they think of the wonderful idea of creating a system that will help you find a transfer service with the “push of a button”.
This idea did not stop there, both decided to work on the project and did not rest until they saw it materialize. By 2009 they had founded UberCab, which was later called Uber.
Uber was founded by Garret Camp, who is also the founder of StumbleUpon, and Travis Kalanick, an excellent programmer who had already managed to sell his first startup for about $ 19 million.
The first version of Uber was featured as a beta version and was developed by Garrett Camp, Conrad Whelan, and Oscar Salazar.
At first, this app had been created with the aim of ordering Premium black cars in metropolitan areas of the United States, so the service was considered expensive.
During 2010, the company began to have very significant income, so Kalanick began to look for a staff specialized in tools and apps. So he tweets a message expressing the open Uber vacancy and gets an immediate response from Ryan Graves.
Ryan Graves is the first official employee of Uber and his work stood out so much that years later he became the CEO of the company and began to receive 5% of the income.
Years later, Travis Kalanick takes over as CEO and Graves reverts to his initial position as COO (Chief Operating Officer).
Many updates and innovations that Uber has had are due to Ryan Graves.
In 2011 it ceased to be UberCab to be called Uber, a name that is added in front of the American colloquial expression “uber” which means “super” or the “highest”.
The success of the company was due in large part to the way users had to access a transfer service with the push of a button. This element caused the company to increase its value to an amount of 60 million dollars.
2011 was undoubtedly a year of great progress for the company, so it established itself in other major cities in the United States such as New York. With this arrival in one of the most lucrative metropolises in the United States, it is estimated that the app registered more than 200,000 daily users.
This same year, Uber reaches other markets and is presented in the city of Paris, where it received an investment of 32 million dollars, by the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
THE NEW UBER X SERVICE
This new service announced by the platform was unveiled in July 2012 and its functions include the way users had to drive under the name of Uber, through their own car.
This service became very popular and was much cheaper than the previous service. The low cost of its service and the great acceptance that the platform had once again enraged the taxi drivers’ union, but this did not stop the success of the company.
In 2013 Uber X reached India and some cities in Africa, that is, it exceeded its presence in some 35 cities around the world🌎.
This new service allowed Uber to have new economic income, already present in the most important cities in the world 🌎, the platform receives an investment of 258 million dollars from Google Ventures 
, by the end of the year it already had a value of 3.76 billion dollars 💵.
UBER SERVICES, VERSIONS, AND PREVIEWS
In 2014, Uber launched UberRUSH in beta mode, only available for the city of Manhattan. This version featured a delivery service through cyclists. It was the best way to deliver packages quickly and on an “urgent” basis, which could easily reach other major cities.
This version was so new that by 2015 it was already present in 25 more cities.
During the month of August 2014, Uber launched a new version of UberPOOL, a service that stood out for sharing rides 🚕with another user going to the same destination. This service provided a new way to share expenses and save money while using the tool.
In 2015, Uber updated its services and launched the UberCARGO application, a tool that was developed in Hong Kong and was considered the first immediate delivery service.
With this new service, the company not only stood out as a transport tool but also consolidated itself as a multifunctional logistics company. A few months after its appearance, UberCARGO was already present in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Barcelona.
In 2014 Uber entered the Chinese market, and this became its largest source of income.
Uber decides to buy the cartography startup deCarta, all in order to depend much less on third-party applications such as Google Maps.
UBER AND ALL COMPANY SERVICES
In this list that I present below, I will show you all the Uber services and which ones are available, taking into account that Uber is present in 633 cities, but not all of them offer the same services.
UberPOOL: it is one of the most sought-after options by users who have the app, it allows you to share a trip that you are going to make with other people who are on the same route, it is available in all cities where it operates.
UberX: is available in all cities where it operates, with this service you enter your destination, confirm the starting point and then select UberX. When I assign you the Driver Partner You can view its photo and the details of the car, you can also track it according to the map’s specifications.
It is one of the most expensive services, depending on the car you choose, its size, and space.
UberGo: This app service is only available in India and provides only hatchback rides.
UberAuto: It is a function only available in Pakistan and performs the same function as UberX.
UberTaxi: Only available in some cities and stands out for being attended by a common taxi driver, which can minimize expenses.
UberEATS: A service that stands out for the delivery of food, according to the restaurants that are affiliated with the service. It is available only in 166 cities where the platform operates and that in Colombia competes strongly with Rappi.
UberRUSH: Present in the city of Chicago, New York, and San Francisco; is a cyclist courier service.
UberBOAT: Present in Istanbul and Croatia, and it is a service to transport water.
These are part of the services offered by the App according to the country or city where the platform is 100% operational. It is important to note that Uber adds special services that are given according to promotions or special dates.
For example, the national cat day, users can travel with their pet to any destination.
All these services have allowed the brand to spread and achieve great success within its market. In 2015 the company made about 2 billion trips, and by 2016 some 40 million users had already been registered.
PAYMENT METHODS FOR SERVICE
As for the payment for the service, there are certain factors that influence it. One of them can be the distance, in this case, the driver can set the rate or depend on a system very similar to the taximeter.
For some services such as UrbeX, the rates vary according to the vehicle model, or the demand that exists at that time.
Regarding the payment method, users can cancel with:
- Credit card
- Cash
- Google wallet
- Paypal
- Up
With all these alternatives, Uber seeks to guarantee a more optimal, stable, and safe service, where the user can have several options to cancel.
UBER’S NEW PROJECTIONS
Uber always remains a fairly up-to-date app, which in a way seeks to renew itself through all its services; and that encourages growth through very interesting projects.
Among the future innovative projects, Uber highlights the acquisition of 24 thousand self-driving cars, a project that has a period of being materialized between 2019-2022.
This strategy is developed by a team of researchers in the robotics area of Carnegie Mellon University, who design the proposal for a fleet of self-driving cars.
The first fleet of these vehicles was launched on the market on September 14, 2016, and these cars had 20 cameras, GPS, laser, lidar, and radar. At first, it was a project that was only present in the city of Pittsburgh, and months later it was already available in the city of San Francisco.
Although in San Francisco the self-driving car service did not work in the best way; The California Department of Vehicles revoked the service of 16 vehicles, so Uber did not continue with it and moved to the city of Arizona, where it is currently operating.
Uber emphasizes that one of the priorities to provide an effective service is to remain multiplatform that encompasses all transfer services. That is why it adds air transport to its functions.
Elevate in a service that has been available since 2014, but in addition to being very expensive, it is also very select.
This service has been used for very important events such as the Cannes Festival and the Film Festival.
CARTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY
The mapping service has been another of the elements that they want to incorporate within their company, in that sense they have begun to map places and territories by drivers from the same company.
THE BAD TIMES THAT CAME FOR UBER
Despite its great reach in 2014, Uber faced a number of problems with social services that began in the second quarter of 2015.
The slump, so to speak, began with a series of protests that originated in France. These protests were promoted by the entire taxi drivers’ union in the city, which blocked the main roads, burned tires, and carried out violent acts against Uber drivers.
Disenchantment was approaching, in September 2015 the Didi Chuxing application, which was its main competitor in China, doubles the range value and leaves the Uber company further behind.
By 2016, the problem worsened, even more, Didi’s company established itself in 400 cities in China and Uber only managed to reach about 100. In this outcome, Uber executives decided to cede the market to the Asian platform and sold it the country membership.
This action improved the condition of the two platforms since both used a large part of their resources to maintain the platform of their system in order to compete with the next app.
All these conflicts caused the company to have a very considerable loss of money, I am talking about 1.8 billion dollars.
In May 2016, the company faces other actions against its platform, it is expelled from the city of Austin in Texas and this action occurred in the face of a series of protests that came to approve a measure against corporations like this one.
She leaves Texas and two months later Uber is expelled from an entire country, Hungary, and the reason was a government law that prevented them from continuing to provide their services.
Uber’s external conflicts have been very notorious and in addition to being expelled from several countries, this app has been one of the most demanded platforms by the taxi drivers’ union.
Despite being a tool for collective use, government laws in some countries have taken it out of the game and the company has had to face a series of lawsuits.
Despite this, the Urbe team is always focused and has a group of lawyers who defend themselves very well against the laws that seek to remove the platform from the online network; And it is that with all the setbacks that the app has had, it has not ceased to establish itself as the most successful startup of the moment.
Many countries have defined Uber as an “unsafe” platform, and that it offers an illegal service, this is what has unleashed countless protests that have managed to block the application in countries and cities such as Bulgaria, Denmark, northern Australia, Finland, France, and Italy.
In Hungary, it came out permanently and in Spain, it was vetoed for almost two years. In the United States, the platform is blocked in cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, Texas, and Austin.
The legal reasons that these regions consider are in terms of security and the economic impact that monopolizes the taxi drivers union.
DIFFERENCES WITH THE TAXI DRIVER’S GUILD
This, it seems, is the company’s “Achilles heel”, and it is that surprisingly the protests increase and the demands become more and more intense.
Uber drivers have been exposed to major violent attacks by trade taxi drivers, who consider that the platform is somewhat unfair since it does not comply with the established parameters.
The most significant protests have been pronounced in countries such as:
- France, in the city of Paris, in 2014.
- In June 2014, large cities in Europe joined the protests, including Berlin, Madrid, and London.
- In Brazil, the protest took place in Rio de Janeiro on July 24, 2015.
- In Costa Rica on August 21, 2015.
- In Indonesia and South Africa, during 2016.
- And in Colombia since 2015.
Undoubtedly, these demonstrations have caused a great social impact for the company, however, it has not affected its growth, since many of these demonstrations have only made the app more popular.
A more visible example was the demonstrations that took place in Mexico, against the company and that the first effect it caused was the increase of application by 800%.
A new opportunity…
Despite the toxic environment that Uber lived in at that time, a new opportunity for refreshment comes to the company. Uber signs a contract with Toyota, they began to work on the same project in July, more than 2 billion trips were made.
UBER AND THE FINANCING PROCESS
The history of Uber has had its good and bad moments, and all this outcome from the moment of its creation, to the present, has been supported by a series of important financing, I show you this way:
- In the year 2010, the company receives 1 million 250 thousand dollars
- Year 2012 the figure multiplies and Uber receives 44 million dollars
- year 2013 Google Venture contributes an amount of 258 million dollars
- Year 2014, the Baidu company allocates an amount that was kept hidden
- It also receives public investment from Saudi Arabia, in the amount of 3,500 million.
- Baidu invests again and shows his figure, 1 million 200 thousand dollars.
- 2016 Saudi Arabia reinvests in the amount of 3.5 billion dollars.
According to these official figures, it is estimated that Uber reached financing of 12 million dollars in all the years of its existence.
UBER A COMPANY WITH SUCCESSES AND MISTAKES
One of the maxims of the Uber company is the reliability it generates for its users, who after requesting the service, do it with the press of a button.
It is a very simple app in the way of use, in which the subscribers are attended from the first moment they look for the service.
At the end of the transfer, the user has all the authority to rate to the driver through the same app, an autonomous feature that positions it as a very reliable service.
With this qualification, drivers already maintain a guide in their profile that displays them in front of new users and that allows others to hire their services.
If the driver begins to receive new ratings and these are done in a positive way, this will have a more popular service within the platform.
Now, I will try to clarify this point. Are the drivers employees or contractors?
Apparently, this is a dilemma that not even the directors of Uber have been able to clarify.
In the early years of the Uber company, he stressed that drivers were a kind of contractor who guaranteed a benefit to the company, so the merit of “employees was never on his mind.”
This process caused a lot of controversies and it is there that a legal dispute begins between one of its drivers, Barbara Ann, who claimed that the company did not allocate any benefits as a contractor to Uber drivers.
In this first lawsuit, the United States Labor Commission pointed out that Uber drivers are “employees” since they depend on the company for money and do not generate any independent action within the company.
After the guidelines given by the labor commission in the United States, many of the drivers have complained, claiming that Uber does not comply with the established laws.
Uber revenue by segment
| Year | Mobility | Delivery | Freight | Other |
| 2018 | $8.9 billion | $0.7 billion | $0.3 billion | $0.1 billion |
| 2019 | $10.4 billion | $1.3 billion | $0.7 billion | $1.3 billion |
| 2020 | $7.9 billion | $4.8 billion | $0.9 billion | $1.3 billion |
Note: Uber sold its Advanced Technologies (ATG) to Aurora in 2021.
Source: Uber
Uber revenue by region
| Year | US & Canada | LATAM | EMEA | APAC |
| 2018 | $6.4 billion | $1.9 billion | $1.7 billion | $1 billion |
| 2019 | $8.5 billion | $1.9 billion | $2.2 billion | $1.2 billion |
| 2020 | $6.8 billion | $1.3 billion | $1.8 billion | $1.5 billion |
Source: Uber
Uber profit
| Year | Profit |
| 2014 | ($0.7 billion) |
| 2015 | ($1.6 billion) |
| 2016 | ($3.6 billion) |
| 2017 | ($4 billion) |
| 2018 | $1 billion |
| 2019 | ($8.5 billion) |
| 2020 | ($6.7 billion) |
Note: Parentheses indicate loss.
Source: Uber
Uber gross bookings
| Year | Gross bookings |
| 2016 | $19 billion |
| 2017 | $45 billion |
| 2018 | $50 billion |
| 2019 | $65 billion |
| 2020 | $57 billion |
Source: Uber
Uber users
| Year | Users |
| 2015 | 11 million |
| 2016 | 37 million |
| 2017 | 68 million |
| 2018 | 91 million |
| 2019 | 111 million |
| 2020 | 93 million |
Source: Uber
Uber trips
| Year | Trips |
| 2017 | 3.79 billion |
| 2018 | 5.21 billion |
| 2019 | 6.9 billion |
| 2020 | 4.98 billion |
Source: Uber
Uber valuation
| Year | Valuation |
| 2011 | $0.3 billion |
| 2013 | $3.7 billion |
| 2014 | $18 billion |
| 2015 | $51 billion |
| 2016 | $63 billion |
| 2017 | $48 billion |
| 2018 | $72 billion |
| 2019 (IPO) | $82 billion |
| 2020 | $46 billion |
Source: Macrotrends, Uber
Uber funding (total)
| Year | Funding |
| 2011 | $0.06 billion |
| 2013 | $0.44 billion |
| 2014 | $4.64 billion |
| 2015 | $5.64 billion |
| 2016 | $9.14 billion |
| 2018 | $18.9 billion |
| 2019 | $20.9 billion |
Source: Uber
Finally, I like to define Uber as a “steel app” that despite facing so many conflicts, the platform has not stopped innovating its tools and seeking stable growth.
Apparently, neither the lawsuits nor the blockades in some countries have managed to eliminate it. These actions have only generated a very extensive level of popularity, so much so that Uber has established itself as one of the most important startups today.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.