No, Uber is not an Indian company. It is an American multinational transportation company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. Uber’s core business includes ride-hailing, food delivery, freight transportation, and courier services. The company coordinates an average of 36 million trips and deliveries each day, and has coordinated around 64 billion trips and deliveries since its founding.
Uber is best known for its ride-hailing service offering on-demand rides through a dedicated application. The customers get access to multiple options like Uber X, Uber Black, shared rides and more. In fact, Uber is the largest ride-hailing company in the world. Other offerings include Uber Eats connecting customers with restaurants and couriers, and logistical and trucking service for businesses.
| Detail | Info |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
| CEO | Dara Khosrowshahi |
| Sector | Transportation, Mobility as a service |
Company History
Uber was launched in the year 2009 as UberCab by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in San Francisco, California. The company started operations by offering on-demand black car services through a smartphone app. In the year 2011, the company rebranded itself to Uber from UberCab and expanded to other US cities like Chicago and New York city. In the year 2012, Uber launched UberX for lower-cost taxi rides. Uber started adding private vehicles to UberX platform from April 2013.
Uber started its international expansion in 2012 and was operating in 65 cities by December 2013. The company entered the food delivery business by launching Uber Eats in 2014. In the year 2018, Uber started renting Tesla electric vehicles through its partnership with Autzu, a ride-sharing company based in San Francisco.
Uber sold its Indian Uber Eats business to Zomato in January 2020.
Current Status
Uber is currently operating in over 70 countries and 10,000 cities. It has a network of over 6 million active drivers and couriers, and an active user base of more than 180 million. The company suffered losses during the Covid-19 pandemic but made a comeback with 2.6 billion completed trips in the second quarter of 2024.
Uber is expanding its operations in autonomous vehicles in collaboration with 20 partners. Its autonomous services are currently running in 12 cities. The company is working with NVIDIA and other tech companies to integrate AI for operational efficiency.
Future Outlook
Uber is expected to increase its strategic investments in autonomous vehicles and global expansion. The company is looking to expand into new verticals like grocery delivery and freight innovation along with emerging markets.
Uber is required to tide over challenges like regulatory compliance in various markets and driver classification. Furthermore, it needs to compete with regional apps and emerging players like Tesla’s robotaxi service.