SC

Strategy Canon

Uber: sourced choices

41 product and go-to-market choices, oldest first. Back to the case study

  1. 2009Product · Initial concept declined Garrett Camp's first idea was a limousine timeshare: he and Kalanick would split the cost of a driver, a Mercedes S-Class and a garage space and summon the car with an iPhone app. The company launched without owning cars. UB1
  2. 2010Product · App rebuild before release Graves had an outside firm rebuild Camp's prototype, which did not work well, before it was pushed to the App Store. UB10
  3. 2010Product · Dispatch algorithm Whelan optimized dispatch to account for drivers who might miss a dispatch, work he says lasted about three years. UB10
  4. 2010Go_To_Market · First riders Early riders came from Camp and Kalanick inviting friends and Graves presenting at startup demo events; by December 2010 Kalanick counted thousands of active riders in San Francisco. UB1
  5. 2010-01Product · First test Three cars ran a test in Manhattan's SoHo, Chelsea and Union Square areas with a few users. UB1
  6. 2010-06-01Product · Card-on-file sign-up The first engineer built sign-up flows that took a credit card and created user accounts; with them the service officially launched on June 1, 2010. UB10
  7. 2010-08Go_To_Market · Driver recruiting Geidt recruited drivers by cold-calling them from Yelp listings. UB10
  8. 2011Go_To_Market · Launch playbook Geidt took notes on everything she did launching a city; the notes became the first playbook and were refined with each later launch. UB10
  9. 2011-11-18Go_To_Market · Washington launch Holt arrived in Washington on November 8, 2011, and the first ride took place on November 18. UB10
  10. 2012Product · Dynamic pricing Prices rise algorithmically when wait times and unfulfilled requests climb, to add supply and damp demand; the mechanism grew out of the early 2012 Boston test. UB11
  11. 2012Product · Low-cost tier UberX, a cheaper hybrid-car tier, was running in San Francisco alongside black cars by September 2012. UB15
  12. 2012Go_To_Market · Peak driver pay test The Boston team tested higher driver pay on Friday and Saturday nights around 1 a.m.; on-road supply rose 70 to 80% and two-thirds of unfulfilled requests were eliminated. UB11
  13. 2012-01Go_To_Market · Driver assurance After the taxi commissioner declared the service illegal, Holt called every driver partner and promised to reimburse any tickets and citations. UB10
  14. 2012-09-12Go_To_Market · Low-price positioning Kalanick said a rival's advantage in getting supply was 'a problem' and that Uber had to become 'a low-cost Uber as well'. UB15
  15. 2013-04Product · Personal-car drivers UberX was extended to ride sharing with drivers' personal cars in April 2013, after Uber published a white paper on rivals exploiting unclear rules. UB16
  16. 2014Go_To_Market · Repeated UberX price cuts Gurley reports that Uber cut UberX prices many times as utilization improved, pricing it well below a taxi in Los Angeles. UB12
  17. 2014-06-06Go_To_Market · Capital raised ahead of revenue Uber raised $1.2 billion at a $17 billion valuation while operating in 128 cities. UB34
  18. 2014-08-26Product · First food delivery test UberFRESH delivered a $12 set lunch in Santa Monica on weekdays, curbside in about ten minutes, by Uber drivers, with no delivery fee; a Corner Store test ran in Washington. UB21
  19. 2014-12-04Go_To_Market · Capital raised for expansion Uber raised a further $1.2 billion, which Kalanick said would fund substantial investment in Asia Pacific; it had gone from 60 cities to over 250 in a year. UB35
  20. 2015Product · Instant delivery in the ride app UberEATS instant delivery, limited to five menu items, sat inside the ride app and was given a more prominent position in summer 2015. UB22
  21. 2015-01-08Go_To_Market · Fare cuts with guarantees Uber cut fares in 48 newer cities and guaranteed driver earnings in every city where it cut prices. UB17
  22. 2015-12-09Product · Standalone Eats app A separate UberEATS app launched in Toronto, with deliveries made by Uber's driver partners. UB22
  23. 2016Go_To_Market · China exit Uber transferred its China business to Didi in exchange for a stake. UB2
  24. 2016-02-18Go_To_Market · Spending ahead of revenue Kalanick said Uber was profitable in the US but losing over $1 billion a year in China. UB36
  25. 2016-03-15Product · Restaurant menus and tracking The US Eats app offered full menus of hundreds of restaurants plus an instant menu, and showed the driver's progress on a map as in the ride app. UB23
  26. 2016-03-15Go_To_Market · Cross-promotion from the ride app The ride app directed users to download the separate UberEATS app, an approach Uber said it took from Facebook's Messenger. UB23
  27. 2016-04Product · Instant menu dropped In New York the ten-minute instant menu was cancelled in favor of made-to-order meals. UB24
  28. 2017-01-20Go_To_Market · Launch staff and scale Geidt trained new launch hires, many former consultants, on her playbook and oversaw the launch of about 400 markets outside China. UB14
  29. 2018-10Go_To_Market · Ride Pass Ride Pass offered steady ride prices for $15 a month in markets such as Los Angeles and Miami. UB29
  30. 2019-04-11Product · Shared technology stack Uber described Eats as built on its existing technology stack and used by many of the same consumers as ridesharing. UB13
  31. 2019-04-11Go_To_Market · Incentives to build liquidity Uber said it could use driver and consumer promotions to attract both sides of the network, at a negative margin until it reached sufficient scale. UB13
  32. 2019-07-22Go_To_Market · Uber Pass test Uber Pass combined ride discounts, free Eats delivery and bike and scooter rides for $24.99 a month in San Francisco and Chicago. UB28
  33. 2020-08-18Go_To_Market · Uber Pass national rollout Uber Pass reached more than 200 US cities outside California at $25 a month. UB29
  34. 2020-12-07Product · Self-driving unit sold The Advanced Technologies Group was sold to Aurora, with an Uber investment and a partnership to bring Aurora's technology to Uber's network. UB6
  35. 2021-11-17Product · Membership benefits Uber One gave 5% off eligible rides and deliveries, $0 delivery fees on qualifying orders, priority service and a credit when a delivery estimate was missed. UB30
  36. 2021-11-17Go_To_Market · Uber One pricing Uber One launched at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a half-price annual offer at launch. UB30
  37. 2023-06-13Go_To_Market · Rides as an acquisition channel Khosrowshahi said rides brought Eats more new customers than Google, Meta and Instagram combined, at about a quarter of the cost. UB27
  38. 2023-06-13Go_To_Market · Courier onboarding Khosrowshahi said couriers can start earning on Eats without a car inspection and are then offered other work on the platform. UB27
  39. 2025-03-04Product · Autonomous rides in the app Riders requesting UberX, Green or Comfort in 37 square miles of Austin could be matched with a Waymo vehicle at no extra cost and unlock it from the Uber app. UB7
  40. 2025-03-04Go_To_Market · Exclusive autonomous distribution In Austin, Waymo rides were available only on the Uber app. UB7
  41. 2026-02-04Product · Family Sharing Uber One members could extend benefits to another adult and their teens at no extra cost. UB32