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As I wait for minutes for a taxi: “I’ll start soon!” The revolutionary story of two friends who found Uber

  • December 16, 2023
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On a rainy evening in Paris, two entrepreneurs stood outside a restaurant for several minutes waiting for a taxi. An idea suddenly appeared in the minds of Travis

As I wait for minutes for a taxi: “I’ll start soon!”  The revolutionary story of two friends who found Uber

On a rainy evening in Paris, two entrepreneurs stood outside a restaurant for several minutes waiting for a taxi. An idea suddenly appeared in the minds of Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, who met at that moment: Why not set up our own taxi service?

The sudden idea would be the start of a transportation revolution. This project has been developed since 2009is an example of an initiative that everyone is using these days.

Based on this idea, Travis and Garrett created their first prototype.

One evening in 2009, Kalanick and Camp wanted to attend a technology conference. They are both entrepreneurs and coincidentally met at the same conference. It would lead to a great coincidence.

Just after the conference, when I couldn’t find a taxi due to stormy and rainy weather. The idea of ​​calling a car via a mobile phone, A light went off in their heads. Garrett Camp after the conference Bought the name UberCab.com and convinced Travis Kalanick to collaborate on this exciting project.

The developed application was launched in 2010. The idea of ​​calling a car with a touch, It seemed more logical to people than waiting for minutes for a taxi. That’s why this idea has become increasingly popular. In the beginning it was a little more expensive than a taxi. But people didn’t like waiting.

Later a problem arose with the name of the site, the phrase ‘taxi’ in the name UberCab.com was removed and the company became solely He continued his way as “Uber”. The CEO of the company that received its first investments is that Ryan Graven happened.

Uber, which initially only offered limousine services, experienced significant growth in 2011.

super limousine

The application was continuously updated and effective technology was used. However As the app grew in the US, so did its enemies. and they were continually punished.

But Uber continued to grow successfully and expanded into India and Africa in 2013. It entered the Chinese market in 2014 and today In 84 countries and more than 760 cities is active.

Looking at Turkey, in October 2019, Istanbul 10th Commercial Court of First Instance, We know that Uber has decided to cease operations because of unfair competition.

The court also decided to block access to Uber. Problems with taxi drivers It has also been on the agenda a lot.

In 2014, former Amazon CEO Jeff Holden joined Uber as a business development manager.

holden, He put forward the idea that it would be better to add information showing where the drivers are going, and determined the drivers’ routes, making the user experience a work of art.

Uber has been working on offering self-driving car services since 2013. According to Bloomberg Uber’s value increased by $50 billion in 2018 compared to the previous year, to $120 billion.

At the end of the process, which began full of difficulties, came these two entrepreneurs With the feedback they received, they improved the application and they expanded their business as much as possible with investments. When they entered New York and other major cities, the project reached a completely different dimension.

In 2016, the company suffered an unprecedented setback: it sold its Chinese branch to mobile transport company Didi Chuxing.

very

With an additional investment of $3.5 billion that year, many investors were concerned about the company’s future prospects. He believed he would see better days. However, 2017 was a bad year for the company.

The problems started in December 2016, when Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was named the new president. It started with his decision to join Donald Trump’s economic advisory board. This decision sparked a wave of anger toward Uber among customers reacting to Trump’s election victory.

In January 2017, Uber launched a campaign against Trump’s immigration policies in New York City.announced it was temporarily suspending increased prices amid nationwide protests, including a strike by taxi drivers in.

The move was seen by many as an attempt to capitalize on the taxi drivers’ strike. #RemoveUber The hashtag quickly became popular on social media.

Although the company stated that the suspension of rising prices was intended to keep the price of travel low during times of high demand, it led to the deletion of the application by more than 500,000 users. After this boycott, Travis Kalanick He resigned from the economic advisory council on February 2, 2017. he explained.

Things took a turn when former employee Susan Fowler shared a blog post alleging that the company had a dysfunctional and sexist workplace culture.

Susan Fowler

Fowler’s article reached a wide audience, prompting Travis Kalanick to launch an investigation into the company’s culture. US Attorney General He led Eric Holder to office.

As a result of the investigation 20 staff members were dismissed and suggestions were made for improving workplace culture. On March 3, 2017, The New York Times revealed a program called Greyball that Uber uses to track its drivers, further complicating the company’s relationships with the public.

Once again, after these events, Uber testing of driverless vehicles It resulted in an accident, which caused the company to temporarily halt vehicle testing.

All of this has further damaged Kalanick’s already negative public image. After criticism from shareholders, he resigned as CEO on June 20, 2017 and was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi was brought in.

Khosrowshahi wants to restore Uber’s image and finances and even go public It focused on goals such as. The IPO, which took place in May 2019, attracted attention when Uber’s share price opened below expectations despite high expectations.

this too It recorded as the worst opening for a US company since 1975. After the disappointing IPO, Khosrowshahi decided to fire more than a thousand employees.

The obstacles they encountered on this path, especially accusations of unfair competition in Turkey, were just some of the problems that Uber could not avoid.

Despite many obstacles and problems With self-driving vehicles, safety measures and social responsibility projects, Uber has managed to go beyond a transportation giant.

This idea came about on a rainy night in Paris. the daily lives of millions of people changes It became a revolution. Nowadays millions of people use Uber to take advantage of a global transport service.

It is very problematic in our country The beginning of the Uber edition dates back to 2014, based on the launch of the Uber XL service in Istanbul. As a result of the fighting, Uber later continued to operate only commercial taxis. Straight away UberTaxi continues to serve as.

Sources: Uber, Britannica, The Street

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