How Uber became a phenomenon in the global economy and politics

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Five years ago, Travis Kalanick launched a startup called UberCab in San Francisco. From a small company serving a small market segment in San Francisco, Travis turned it into a successful corporation with an estimated cost of $ 51 billion.

Uber has changed the market for taxi services.

First, with her appearance calling a taxi was even easier. The company has created a mobile application with the same name to call, search and pay for a taxi. It’s enough to touch the screen several times with your finger, and not to wave your hands.

Secondly, free businessmen became drivers of Uber, which allowed the company not to pay them the minimum hourly wage, social benefits and taxes. Although company representatives say their drivers in the United States earn about $ 19 per hour and can work when they want and as much as they want. It is on the flexibility of the work schedule that emphasis is placed.

Using the Uber application, the customer reserves the car with the driver and tracks its movement to the destination. The trip is paid by credit card only.

The first passengers of Uber, launched in Los Angeles, were the parents of the founder Travis Kalanika.

Initially, drivers participating in the Uber system could only use executive cars. Lincoln Town Car, Cadillac Escalade, BMW 7 Series, Mercedes-Benz S550.

After Los Angeles, Uber quickly spread to other US cities.

In May 2011, the Internet service became available in New York. For all the time there have been 13 millions of trips (about 20 thousands per day).

In 2011, Uber was launched in Paris, the first city outside the United States. Now the company operates in more than 300 cities and 67 countries, including Russia and Ukraine.

To help grow the company, Kalanic hired lobbyist David Plaff, who led the Obama election campaign in 2008.

Nevertheless, critics agreed that the rapid growth of this company occurred precisely at the expense of drivers who receive too little and are deprived of many social guarantees, writes Vox.

In 2012, the list of available cars was expanded towards economy class, and the new service was called UberX.

The company has not been without scandals. The most resonant occurred in the 2011 year. The company violated the privacy policy and monitored the movement of its customers who did not give their consent. Given the fact that the client turned out to be a Buzzfeed journalist, the news quickly gained momentum.

It turns out that the company has a program called God View, with which you can calculate customers and service workers, and which is widely available to company employees, writes Buzzfeed.

In response, the company wrote a privacy policy on its blog and clarified that it has always adhered to it.

The scandalous stories were not without competitors. In 2014, Uber and her main competitor Lyft blamed each other for ordering fake trips.

11 August 2014 representatives of Lyft announced that the company registered more than 5 thousands of fake orders from Uber employees, and the next day Uber representatives put Lyft on blame for making more than 13 thousands of fake calls.

The press leaked information that Uber hires special workers who order trips to Lyft, and then refuse them, taking time from the drivers. According to The Verge, such employees received mobile phones and credit cards so that representatives of Lyft could not determine that orders come from Uber.

The startup rejected all accusations.

Uber attracted a total of $ 5,9 billion, with a company's market value of $ 51 billion, which makes Kalanika a multi-billionaire. The next round of investment of one and a half to two billion dollars could make Uber the most expensive private company in the world, writes .

However, the activity of the service caused conflicts and protests in many countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands.

In some countries, Uber received fines, in others some or all of its services were prohibited.

The problem is related to the inconsistency of the rules of service and legislation of several European countries. Most often - the lack of relying licenses for the provision of services, as well as low tariffs.

In 2015, Uber became the pretext for political discussions between the Republican and Democratic parties.

Republicans defended the service. They praise him for turning over the traditional services market and allowing passengers to quickly and inexpensively get to the right place.

Republican Ted Cruz even compared himself to Uber in December 2015 of the year, saying he hopes to conquer Washington just as Uber conquered the taxi service industry.

Jeb Bush has consistently used the Uber service in San Francisco during his campaign. Marco Rubio has been advertised in Uber for a year.

Democrats divided into two camps. Some praised the innovative spirit of Uber, others expressed fears for drivers who are not socially protected.

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in her speech: “This“ economy of mutual aid ”opens up tremendous opportunities and stimulates innovation. But it also raises serious questions about protecting the interests of workers and how good work will look like in the future. ”

Under the "economy of mutual aid" (sharing economy) in our case means renting a driver with a car. “Demand creates supply” is the main principle of a business that is rapidly spreading around the world, The Economist magazine writes.

Uber is experimenting with other services besides passenger traffic: UberEATS - food ordering, UberRUSH - couriers.

In May 2015, the company Kalanika lured 40 scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, who will work on the creation of unmanned vehicles for use in taxi transport. In the past, the CEO of Uber has already announced that he would like to replace drivers with unmanned vehicles.

Among the countries of the former Soviet Union, Uber is still available in Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus.

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