Despite the negative press and coverage that Uber went through in 2017, it is still a global giant and a recovering one at that. Uber's presence was felt in more ways than one during 2017, and it continues to show signs of exponential expansion into many diverse areas apart from ridesharing. It also affects many secondary sectors.
Here are some statistics to back up our claims:
- During 2017 4.5 million receipts processed by Certify were from Uber, which makes them 9% of all of Certifies accounts. In comparison, Starbucks accounted for 5%.
- Uber performed 4 billion rides, in comparison to Lyft's 375 million.
- Uber controls 82% of all ridesharing receipts.
- Uber is found in 78 countries and over 600 cities around the world. Lyft is only found in the US and parts of Canada.
- Uber controls 56% of the US human ground transportation market, Lyft covers 12%, and the rest are taxis and other service providers.
- Uber has many other categories such as UberEats, UberFreight and UberBusiness, as well as investing billions in AV research and development.
Uber is just one gig economy company, home sharing companies such as Airbnb who dominates a global market, is but one other sector dealing with the private "sharing" economy. The gig economy is starting to expand due to the understanding of the internet and how consumers seek more variety, more control and cheaper value for money.
Conventional approaches to some sectors are starting to fail, and "match and cash" apps such as booking.com and expedia.com are starting to feel the weight of "search and match" companies such as Trivago that specialize in comparing sites and providers against each other. Meals management companies such as UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates and more are also trying to compete for food and meal deliveries across the US.
Ride-hailing is limited to a few major players, in the US it is mainly Uber and Lyft, while there are some small local players as well as Taxi apps that operate in a similar fashion, the rest of the market is currently blocked to most newcomers due to Uber's dominance. Lyft managed to come in early and controls 12% of the market, making it a very poor challenger, and only really there to make sure Uber is not a monopoly.
Basically, what Uber has done, is opened up the consumer's eyes to the great possibilities that an app system can provide. Hospitality and transportation are the major areas that take advantage of apps and incentives.