Allen Career Institute
Uber Technologies Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, operating in 633 cities worldwide. It develops, markets and operates the Uber car transportation and food delivery mobile apps. Uber drivers use their own car although drivers can rent a car to drive with Uber. The name “Uber” is a reference to the common (and somewhat slangy) word “uber”, meaning “topmost” or “super”, and having its origins in the German word über, meaning “above”.
Uber was founded in 2009 as UberCab by Garrett Camp, the cofounder of StumbleUpon, and Travis Kalanick, who had sold his Red Swoosh startup for $19 million in 2007.
Kalanick joined Camp and gives him “full credit for the idea”of Uber. On New Year’s Eve, Camp spent $800 hiring a private driver with friends and had been mulling over ways to decrease the cost of black car services ever since. He realized that sharing the cost with people could make it affordable, and his idea morphed into Uber. “Garrett is the guy who invented that shit,” Kalanick said at an early Uber event in San Francisco. The first prototype was built by Camp, and his friends, Oscar Salazar and Conrad Whelan, with Kalanick being brought on as a “mega advisor” to the company.
Following a beta launch in May 2010, Uber’s services and mobile app officially launched in San Francisco in 2011. Originally, the application only allowed users to hail a black luxury car and the price was 1.5 times that of a taxi. In February 2010, Ryan Graves became the first Uber employee, getting the job by responding to a tweet from Kalanick announcing the job opening, and receiving 5-10% of the company. Graves started out as general manager and shortly after the launch was named as CEO. After ten months Kalanick succeeded Graves as CEO in December 2010. Graves stepped down to become the company’s COO.
In 2011, the company changed its name from UberCab to Uber.
During the initial development of the Uber app, the company created a think tank consisting of a nuclear physicist, a computational neuroscientist, and a machinery expert who worked on predicting demand for private hire car drivers and where demand is highest.
Uber offers various service levels. Not all service levels are available in every city. UberPOOL is the least expensive level of service, in which the customer may share the ride with another passenger going in the same general direction. UberX (marketed as UberPOP in some European cities) is a level of service in which the rider will get a private ride. Other levels of service provide for a black luxury car, larger car, car with a car seat, SUV, wheelchair accessible transport, and pet transport.
UberGo, available in India, provides for a ride in a hatchback.
UberAUTO, available in Pakistan, is an Auto Rickshaws service for riders to travel within the city at much less cost compared to UberGO and UberX.
UberTAXI, which is available in some markets, allows users to summon a taxi using the Uber software application.Users pay an additional booking fee and can leave a gratuity through the app.The service is designed to appease taxi drivers who protest the increased competition from Uber.
UberEATS allows users to have meals delivered from participating restaurants by Uber drivers. The service is available in 71 cities.
UberRUSH is a courier package delivery service available in New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago.
UberBOAT, available in Istanbul, is a water-taxi service that allows users to travel by Beneteau boats across the Bosporus strait. UberBOAT has also run in other cities during special events such as across Biscayne Bay during Miami Art Week. In 2017, UberBOAT has been launched in Croatia.
Uber also offers additional services in certain cities during special events. During National Ice Cream Month, Uber users in certain cities can summon an ice cream van for on-demand delivery, with ice cream purchases billed to users’ accounts. On National Cat Day, certain Uber drivers deliver kittens for 15 minutes of cuddling in exchange for a donation to an animal shelter. In some cities, during December, Uber offers delivery of Christmas trees.
Source : Wikipedia
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Formerly called
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UberCab (2009–2011) |
|---|---|
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Type
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Privately held company |
| Industry |
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| Founded | March 2009 |
| Founders | Travis Kalanick Garrett Camp |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
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Area served
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Worldwide, 633 cities[1] |
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Key people
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| Products | Mobile app, website |
| Services |
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| Revenue |  US$ 6.5 B (2016)[3] |
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Net income
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 US$ -2.8 B (2016)[3] |
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Number of employees
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More than 12,000[4] |
| Divisions | UberEATS, Otto |
| Website | www |
