Uber Case Study

PRODUCT: UBER TAXI

INDUSTRY: CAB/TAXI INDUSTRY

PRODUCT: UBER SERVICES

NAME OF COMPANY: UBER

FOUNDED IN 2009 IN CALIFORNIA
Name the existing product(s) and/or service(s) from that company that revolutionized the industry.
Uber offers a service that allows people to push a button and have a taxicab sent to them. The drivers are regular people who use their own vehicles and get paid a percentage of the fare.
Explain how the product(s) and/or service(s) work, what new technologies have been used.
Uber uses a smartphone app to connect drivers and prospective passengers. It works as highlighted below
Request a ride
Prospective Uber passengers use the application to request for a ride by tapping on a request ride button. Using Gps triangulation

Google maps also provide the road networks in that location to assist passenger and drivers to navigate easily. In combination with geolocation the car can be tracked in real time if you pair your application with another person’s in a different location.
Push Notifications and SMS
After you request for an Uber it sends you a number of notifications, you are first notified when a driver accepts your request and is on his way, the second when the driver is less than a minute away where the car information and driver details are provided to you. They also notify you when a ride has been cancelled for some reason. You can receive these messages as SMS or push notifications.
Payment integration
Uber uses a cashless system in most countries. You can pay via debit or credit card, or use a promotion code. This removes any human-to-human cash transfers from the equation making transactions safer. In addition, PayPal’s system has Uber integration, customers can pay for the taxi service directly from their PayPal accounts, though this is not available globally in all of Uber’s markets. You can also split your fare with your friends directly in the application if you are riding

Situation in the Industry before Uber
Before the rise of Uber, one had to call a taxi dispatcher company to have a taxi sent out to them if available or go and try to hail down a taxi along the road to get one
Before Uber there was no way of tracking how far a taxi that had been dispatched to you would take to arrive, one had to wait and hope the cab shows up in one way or another
After a trip in a cab, the passenger had to pay for the required fare in cash only with no credit card provision, the fare to be paid was also determined by the driver with no transparent calculation system that is shared by the passenger
In traditional Taxis, the passenger had to wait until the cab arrived to be able to identify the driver and type of vehicle the taxi is
Before the invention of Uber another person out of the cab could not track the movement of the cab and pinpoint exactly where it was on the specified route.
Before Uber came into cab business it was difficult to share a ride unless you know each other before getting a cab to your destination.
Traditional cabs did not provide a way of rating the service provided by the driver to the customer
Situation in the industry after Uber came