Business Capstone – The Case of Uber

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE – THE CASE OF UBER
Business Capstone – The Case of Uber
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BUSINESS CAPSTONE – THE CASE OF UBER1
Executive Summary
Uber is a prominent taxi company that is based in the United States of America and which
currently operates in more than seventy different countries of the world. Uber offers app cab
services, and has over the years diversified its services to include food delivery facilities, bike
rides and driverless vehicle options to name a few. As a company, Uber is continuing to grow
and expand in spite of the many challenges and setbacks it has faced in terms of client criticism
and government regulations, in the course of running its operations. This report engages in a case
study analysis of Uber. The report provides an overview of the company, engages in an in-depth
literature review of how Uber is running its business model and services and concludes with a
number of effective recommendations using which Uber can improve upon its existing services.

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Table of Contents
1. Chapter 1 – Introduction...........................................................................................................2
1.1. Company Overview..........................................................................................................2
1.2. Reliable and Cost Effective Services................................................................................2
1.4. Promotional Limited Services of Uber.............................................................................4
1.5. Rating Scheme..................................................................................................................4
1.6. Additional Services and Products of the Uber Company.................................................5
1.7. Research Questions...........................................................................................................5
1.8. Research Aims and Objectives.........................................................................................6
2. Chapter 2 – Literature Review.................................................................................................7
2.1. Business Model of the Uber Company.............................................................................7
2.2. Understanding how Uber can address its Competitive Situation Globally.....................12
2.3. Understanding the Growth Strategies of Uber................................................................17
2.4. Challenges Facing the Riding Industry Today................................................................18
3. Recommendations for Future Improvement of Uber.............................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................22

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1. Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.1. Company Overview
Uber is a multinational transportation company that has truly transformed the way in
which the world moves today. It connects drivers to riders and vice versa in a seamless fashion
through its applications and it has made cities and towns of the globe far more accessible than
what they used to be before. The company was established in the year of 2009 and has its
presence today in several hundred cities worldwide. The global presence of Uber is one that is
rapidly expanding and it is a company that is continuing to bring people, towns and cities
together. By the year of 2015, Uber had emerged as a high profile company, perhaps the most
high profile company of the specific generation to which it belongs. Passengers are connected to
drivers by the Uber Company in quick and efficient manner and on a scale that is unprecedented
(Horan 2017).
1.2. Reliable and Cost Effective Services
What has particularly contributed to Uber being so popular among its customers is the
fact that its services are both reliable as well as cost effective. Customers prefer to use Uber over
other app cab services because of the breathtaking efficiency that this company’s value
proposition is characterized by. As many as two million or more Uber rides are being booked in
a day, today, worldwide and the net commission of the Company that it gets from its drivers
ranges between 1.5 to 2 billion dollars as of the year 2015 (Posen 2015). As many as 2 million
Uber rides are being booked in a single day, and the net revenue of Uber drivers is estimated to
range between one and a half to two million dollars as of the year of 2015 (based on case study
provided).

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1.3. Diverse Range of Services on Offer
Uber or Uber Technologies Inc as it is officially known is a company that provides its
customers with a diverse range of services to choose from. Some of the well-known examples of
services that are provided by Uber are bicycle sharing systems, ride service hailing, peer to peer
ride sharing facilities and food delivery services. The company is headquartered in the American
state of San Francisco and it is currently running operations 785 metropolitan cities around the
world. The business model of the Uber Company is quite dynamic in its character and form with
the key stakeholders of the company being passengers, riders, and customers who avail the food
delivery services. Passengers make use of a particular app known as the Uber app in order to
book an Uber ride. At the time of booking, the price or fare of the ride is quoted so customers
have full knowledge of how much a single ride is going to cost them at the time of booking itself.
It is a dynamic pricing model that the Uber Company makes use of for its operations around the
world with the fares for a ride along the same route or location varying from one point of time to
another. The fare is based not only on the location to which the cab is going to travel but also the
demand and supply of rides at the time of placing a booking request. When it comes to its
drivers, the Uber Company perceives its riders as contractors while certain countries like the
Switzerland or United Kingdom as places where courts of law perceive Uber drivers as recruited
employees of the company. Uber drivers are seen to use their own vehicles in order to offer
driver services on behalf of the company but can also lease or rent a vehicle for the same (Posen
2015).
There are specific and highly specialized services that are provided by the Uber Company
as well, when it comes to the domain of transportation in particular. Uber X constitutes the basic
level of services provided by Uber app cab, whereby private rides are provided in standard

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vehicles that are operated by well-qualified and efficient drivers and which are capable of
accommodating as many as four people at a time. Uber XL cars are slightly larger in size with all
other facilities remaining the same. Both the Uber X and Uber XL vehicles are known to be
equipped with what may be termed as child safety seats that can be availed for extra charge.
People who move around with service animals can use Uber vehicles without hesitation. Uber
Assist is a special program designed by the Uber Company that is aimed at providing elderly
people with assistance and care especially passengers who are physically disabled and who are
not capable of moving around from one place to another without the use of a wheelchair. Uber
Bike is a popular bicycle sharing system which facilitates user to rent lime scooters or electronic
bikes using the Uber mobile app for this purpose. Chap-Chap which means fast moving in
Swahili is a low cost transportation service offered by the Uber Company in Nairobi. Flash is an
Uber service in Singapore and Hong Kong that allows customers to avail cab services in both
publicly owned and privately owned vehicles (Wallsten 2015).
1.4. Promotional Limited Services of Uber
There are a number of promotional limited services that have also been created by the
Uber Company and which are aimed at providing rides to customers of fifteen to twenty minutes
duration each in the state of San Francisco. The vehicle is the De-Lorean, a car that was featured
in the franchise of the movie Back to the Future. Uber has also made it possible for its users to
go ahead and hire speed boats in order to get across certain points or areas located on the
Croatian Coast. Transport services have been offered by the Uber Company across Biscayne Bay
in the course of the art week that was held in Miami as well as at the Bosporous Strait during the
summer, in Istanbul, Turkey (Edelman and Geradin 2015).