Uber (company)
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Formerly called
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UberCab (2009–2011) |
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| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Transportation Technology |
| Founded | March 2009 |
| Founders |
Travis Kalanick Garrett Camp |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, United States |
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Area served
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Worldwide, 536+ cities |
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Key people
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Travis Kalanick (CEO), Thuan Pham (CTO), Ryan Graves |
| Services | Taxicab, Vehicle for hire |
| Revenue | -US$3.0 billion (2016) |
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Number of employees
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6,700 |
| Website | uber |
Uber Technologies Inc. is an American worldwide online transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops, markets and operates the Uber app, which allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request, which the software program then automatically sends to the Uber driver nearest to the consumer, alerting the driver to the location of the customer. Uber drivers use their own personal cars. As of August 2016, the service was available in over 66 countries and 545 cities worldwide. The Uber app automatically calculates the fare and transfers the payment to the driver. Since Uber's launch, several other companies have replicated its business model, a trend that has come to be referred to as "Uberification".
The legality of Uber has been challenged by governments and taxi companies, who allege that its use of drivers who are not licensed to drive taxicabs is unsafe and illegal; some taxi driver unions have called Uber drivers "pirate taxis".
In 2015, Uber achieved its 1 billion rides milestone since its founding, even though it is still lacking by a margin when compared to Didi Chuxing's 1.4 billion rides in just a year.
Uber was founded as UberCab by Garrett Camp, the founder of StumbleUpon, and Travis Kalanick in 2009. The company received $200,000 in seed funding that same year. In 2010, Uber raised $1.25 million in additional funding.
Following a beta launch in the summer of 2010, Uber's services and mobile app officially launched in San Francisco in 2011. Initially, Ryan Graves was appointed as CEO, however, Kalanick replaced him in the role later that year. Graves stepped down to become the company's COO.
By the end of 2011, Uber had raised $44.5 million in funding. That year, the company changed its name from UberCab to Uber. The name "Uber" is a reference to the common (and somewhat slangy) word "uber", meaning "super", and having its origins in the German word über.
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Wikipedia