Uber, one of the largest gig-economy firms, is an American company known mainly for its ride-sharing service. Besides ride-sharing, Uber provides several other services including food delivery (Uber Eats), courier, and freight transportation in many parts of the world.
A snowstorm that took place in Paris, in December 2009, making it hard for people to get a taxi, inspired the two co-founders of Uber, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, to come up with the idea of a ride-sharing app.
Formerly Uber was known as UberCab. The name Uber came from a German word that means “above all the rest”.
In June 2010 UberCab was launched in San Francisco and in October of the same year the name was changed from UberCab to Uber and the company got funding worth $1.25 million for expansion. At present, Uber is operating in 900 metropolitan areas worldwide.
This ride-hailing company started its journey in Bangladesh in November 2016. Though soon after being launched Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) declared Uber illegal in Bangladesh as the company did not take permission from BRTA which is concerned for running such business in Bangladesh. In 2019 Uber, along with two other local ride-sharing companies Pathao and Shohoz, got “Ridesharing Service Provider Enlistment Certificate” from BRTA.
At present, over 100,000 cars have been listed by Uber that provides convenient and affordable service to riders in Dhaka city.
To make Uber affordable for more people Uber launched UberMOTO in Bangladesh in November 2017. At the end of 2018, Uber declared Bangladesh as the largest moto market for Uber.
In 2018, Uber Bangladesh expanded its operation in Chittagong, another metropolitan area of Bangladesh.
In 2019, Uber launched its food delivery service UberEats partnering with local restaurants. But in June 2020, the company decided to discontinue UberEats in Bangladesh to focus on top Eats markets around the world.
To get more traction Uber Bangladesh has added new features to its ride-sharing service, such as Uber Rentals (hourly rental packages starting at BDT 899*), UberIntercity, UberPOOL, etc.
In June 2020, Uber launched “Uber Connect”, a package delivery service in Bangladesh.
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Uber Bangladesh partnered with bKash, the largest mobile financial service provider of Bangladesh, to offer cashless transactions for maintaining physical distance during the pandemic.
At present, Uber is one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. And remains one of the fascinating case studies in building a fast-growing global consumer tech business. There are a lot of things that new startups can learn from Uber.
The history of how Uber went from the most feared startup in the world to its massive IPO
Ten years ago, a company called UberCab made a splash in San Francisco by letting you hail a car with your smartphone. Since then, the company — now known just as Uber — has spread like wildfire across the globe.
Uber Success Story - Know the History of Uber | Founders | Acquisitions
The company focused on the people's needs of everyday traveling and came out with a solution to providing an efficient, optimum, and hassle-free traveling experience to its customers. Over the years it has gained popularity and has become the one-stop riding solution for many people.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick: There Was An Uber Way Before Uber
Taking the stage at the TED2016 Conference, Travis Kalanick founder of the world’s most valuable startup, shared his game plan to get more people into fewer cars subsequently cutting congestion, pollution, and parking. Before getting into how Uber plans to do that Kalanick talked extensively about a company called Jitney that started in 1914.
Ride-hailing juggernaut Uber announced today it’s launching in the South Asian country of Bangladesh, with capital city Dhaka the first port of call.
Uber To Launch Bike-Sharing Service Uber Moto In Dhaka
Coming from Uber, this is an expected move for several reasons. One is, of course, local upstart Pathao which launched bike-sharing in 2016 and has gained significant traction over the past year.
Uber Launches UberPOOL In Dhaka
‘UberPOOL’ is a new ridesharing option that allows riders to join, or ‘POOL’, with other riders with similar routes in the same Uber, and share the cost of the trip. Shared rides like UberPOOL will enable more people to travel using fewer cars.
Shohoz, Pathao, Uber Get BRTA License For Ride-sharing
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has issued a ride-sharing license to three leading ride-hailing companies Shohoz, Pathao, and Uber after they started registering the app-based transportation services a few months ago.
Uber Launches Package Delivery Service 'Uber Connect' in Dhaka
The new delivery service can only be used for transporting goods and not ferrying passengers. Similar to on-demand trips, customers will be able to continue monitoring the trip’s progress prior to pickup, en route, and at the dropoff. Customers can also share the delivery status with the recipient of the package.
Uber has sold its food delivery business, Uber Eats, in India to local rival Zomato in an all-stock deal that gives Uber 9.99% ownership in Zomato. The move is aimed to help Uber cut losses and is expected to help Zomato to raise a mega-round to fight out its position in India’s already hyper-competitive food delivery space.
UberEats Exits Bangladesh and Online Food Delivery Thesis Followup
Uber Eats has made an announcement that says it aims to focus “our energy and resources on our top Eats markets around the world” as its reason for shutting Uber Eats in Bangladesh. That’s a quite straight forward announcement that leaves little room for speculation and it does make perfect sense.
Uber's Ambitions For Bangladesh With Quazi Zulquarnain, Country Lead, Uber Bangladesh (Part One)
Since joining Uber in 2016, Mr. Zulquarnain has been instrumental in spearheading the launch of Uber in Bangladesh and subsequently growing the service to 100,000 drivers in two and a half years. Uber was officially launched in Dhaka in 2016 with one service, UberX and a team of three people. Today, about 205 people use the Uber app every minute in Dhaka and Uber has built a solid portfolio of services.
Uber's Transportation Aggregation Play In Dhaka
One of the main focuses for us in Bangladesh right from the beginning has been ensuring a strong product portfolio. Right now, with Uber if you open up the app, there are six things you can choose from – you can take Ubermoto if you want to get somewhere fast and cheap, you can take an Uber X ride, if you want a better ride experience you take Uber Premium, then you have other things such as you have Uber XL, which is a product that allows you to request a Toyota Hayes or Toyota Noah, if you have a big family get together or a going somewhere you need that.
Uber's plan to get more people into fewer cars | Travis Kalanick || TED Talk
