Showing posts with label uber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uber. Show all posts
Monday, March 27, 2017
Uber fundraising drive values app higher than General Motors
Uber fundraising drive values app higher than General Motors
Ride-hailing app is valued at $62bn making it the world?s most valuable private start-up and outstripping the US car giant?s $55bn worth
Uber Technologies is raising money to expand its ride-hailing app into Asia and for new services such as food and parcel deliveries
Uber Technologies, the company behind the taxi-hailing app, could be valued at more than $60bn (œ40bn) after its latest fundraising round, according to reports.
The San Francisco-based car-booking company hopes to raise as much as $2.1bn in new cash, Bloomberg reported. It has filed paperwork in Delaware detailing the financing plans, which would value the business at $62.5bn. This would exceed General Motors, whose market value is $55.6bn.
In the summer, Uber was valued at $50bn, making it the world?s most valuable private start-up.
Uber, which launched its app more than five years ago, is seeking more funding as it expands into new areas, such as food and package delivery, and rolls out its taxi-hailing service across Asia, particularly in China, where it is spending $1bn. It is working on new technology, including self-driving cars.
Uber faces a growing number of rivals around the world, including Didi Kuaidi in China, Ola in India, GrabTaxi in Singapore and Lyft in the US. Those four companies are teaming up in a global alliance that will make their apps compatible for travellers, they announced on Thursday.
Uber is fighting legal battles around the world, some with its own ?driver-partners?, who are seeking the benefits of employees. In London, black-cab drivers have staged protests against Uber, putting pressure on Transport for London to ensure the US firm is subject to the same kind of regulation as them.
Uber has attracted investments from Tiger Global Management and T. Rowe Price as part of this financing round. Microsoft took part in a previous fundraising. Uber had already raised more than $10bn before the latest fundraising. Tiger also backs Uber?s main three Asian rivals.
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Wednesday, November 2, 2016
These Four Charts Show How Uber Steals Turf From Cabs and Spreads Throughout a City BusinessWeek
These Four Charts Show How Uber Steals Turf From Cabs and Spreads Throughout a City BusinessWeek
As part of a data-sharing agreement with Uber and Lyft, Portland officials compiled a detailed report on how ride-hailing apps transformed the city?s transportation patterns in just a few months.
Portland is a city that values its weird traditions, which is partly why it resisted overtures by Uber and other ride-hailing apps to operate there. Eventually, officials gave in. According to a report by the city, the apps swiftly changed Portland in surprising ways. The findings show how quickly ride-hailing providers can gain traction, first grabbing market share from taxis, then expanding the overall car-for-hire market.
As Bloomberg Businessweek chronicled in a June feature, Uber and Lyft hit the streets of Portland in late April under a 120-day trial period. They started operating after a long political effort involving dozens of meetings, classic lobbying, and (among other things) a unicyclist. As part of the temporary approval, the ride-hailing companies agreed to share detailed data on their operations.
In August, the city council extended the trial period for several months so it could finish tweaking the rules. In the meantime, city staffers crunched the data and compiled what they believe is the first comprehensive report by any city based on proprietary information from Uber. Portland shared a copy of the report with Bloomberg, and weve pulled out some of the highlights. The study provides a rare, detailed look into what happens when a city opens up to on-demand apps and how the taxicab industry adapts.
It didnt take long for Uber and Lyft to become as popular as local taxis. In May, taxis provided about 5,500 rides per day; within a month, that fell to about 4,500 rides and basically flat-lined. Demand for ride-hailing services kept growing, from 2,300 average daily rides in May to more than 8,000 in August. Overall, Portlanders took 100,000 more for-hire rides in August than in May. Its worth noting that the Pacific Northwest had an uncharacteristically warm and dry summer, so theres not much reason to think weather played a role in the increase.
In just seven weeks, Uber and Lyft surpassed taxis in providing rides on weekends. While the number of weekend taxi rides initially fell a bit, Portlanders took thousands more trips on weekends in late August than in early May. Saturdays, in particular, are big nights for the ride-hailing apps. In general, the early morning, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., is the sole time period when taxis provided more rides. The city hypothesizes that this is due to people catching early flights?probably reserving pickups in advance, a service not offered by Uber and Lyft.
Eight percent of all taxi rides started in East Portland, a low-income neighborhood, while only 3 percent of all Uber and Lyft riders originated there. As the summer progressed, Uber and Lyft picked up more riders in less central areas across the city, but demand for their service remained more concentrated than that for taxis around downtown.
Over the four months, Uber and Lyft provided 13 percent of the 3,000 rides taken by people who needed wheelchair-accessible vehicles, leaving taxis to provide the vast majority of the service. Such vehicles are more expensive to operate. In September, Uber expanded its supply of wheelchair-accessible vehicles, so future reports will show whether it can become the provider of choice for all Portlanders, or mainly just those out at night and on weekends.
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