If you were trying to pick iconic examples of e-commerce in the two decades since it began in 1995, it is likely that companies such as Amazon, eBay, Google, Apple, and Facebook would be high on the list. Today, there’s a new company that may become the face of e-commerce as it enters its third decade: Uber. Uber and other firms with similar business models, such as Lyft (a ride service similar to Uber’s), Airbnb (rooms for rent), Heal (doctor home visits), Handy and Homejoy (part-time household helpers), Instacart (grocery shopping), Washio (laundry service), and BloomThat (flower delivery), are the pioneers of a new on-demand service e-commerce business model that is sweeping up billions of investment dollars in 2015, and disrupting major industries from transportation, to hotels, real estate, house cleaning, maintenance, and grocery shopping. On-demand service firms have collected over $26 billion in venture capital funding over the last five years, making this the hottest business model in e-commerce for 2015. Uber provides two major services: UberTaxi (also called UberX), which provides taxi service, and UberBlack, which provides a higher-priced town car service for business executives. UberPool is a ride-sharing service that allows users to share a ride with another person who happens to be going to same place. Google is working with Uber on developing this new service. In several cities, Uber is developing UberEats, a food delivery service; UberRush, a same-day delivery service; and UberCargo, a trucking service. Uber, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, and has grown explosively since then to over 300 cities and 60 countries. Drivers are signing up at an exponential rate, doubling every year; as of the beginning of 2015, there were over 160,000. Over 44% of Uber drivers have college degrees (compared to 15% of taxi drivers), 71% say they have boosted their income and financial security by driving for Uber, and 73% say they prefer a job where they choose their hours rather than a 9-to-5 job, according to an Uber-sponsored survey. In 2015, Uber’s revenue is estimated to be $10 billion, with profits (after paying its drivers) of $2 billion. This is five times as much as it made in 2014, when net revenue was about $400 million, which itself is about four times as much as its net revenue in 2013. Uber appears to be growing at 300% a year! As a result, in 2015, Uber is the most richly valued start-up in history and is currently valued at more than $50 billion.
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