Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinationaltransportation company that providesride-hailing services,courier services,food delivery, andfreight transport.[1] It is headquartered inSan Francisco, California, and operates in approximately 70 countries and 15,000 cities worldwide.[1] It is the largestridesharing company worldwide with over 180 million monthlyactive users and 6 million active drivers and couriers. It coordinates an average of 36 million trips and delivery orders per day, and has coordinated 64 billion trips and delivery orders since its inception in 2010.[2] In the second quarter of 2025, the company had a take rate (revenue as a percentage of gross bookings) of 30.6% for mobility services and 18.8% for food delivery.[2]
Uber classifies its drivers asgig workers orindependent contractors, which has drawn criticism and legal challenges because it allows the company to withholdworker protections that it would have been required to provide to employees.[3][4] Studies have shown that, especially in cities where it competes withpublic transport, Uber contributes totraffic congestion, reduces public transport use, has no substantial impact on vehicle ownership, and increasesautomobile dependency.[5][6][7] Othercontroversies involving Uber include various unethical practices such as aggressive lobbying and ignoring/evading local regulations. Some of these conducts were revealed by a leak of documents showing controversial activity between 2013 and 2017 under the leadership ofTravis Kalanick.
In 2009,Garrett Camp, a co-founder ofStumbleUpon, came up with the idea to create Uber to make it easier and cheaper to procure direct transportation. Camp andTravis Kalanick had spent $800 hiring a private driver on New Year's Eve, which they deemed excessive, and Camp was also inspired by his difficulty in finding ataxi on a snowy night in Paris.[8][9] The prototype of themobile app was built by Camp and his friends, Oscar Salazar and Conrad Whelan, with Kalanick as the "mega advisor" to the company.[9]
Following a beta launch in May 2010, Uber's services and mobile app launched publicly in San Francisco in 2011.[12][13] Originally, the application only allowed users to hail a black luxury car and the price was approximately 1.5 times that of a taxi.[14][15] In 2011, the company changed its name fromUberCab toUber after complaints from San Francisco taxicab operators.[16] Kalanick believed that in addition to efficiency, Uber offered elegance because all drivers had fancy black cars. He did not feel that regular cars driven by non-professional drivers would be attractive. Kalanick and hisangel investorJason Calacanis publicly stated in podcasts that the world's first rideshare company (Wingz) was illegal and would not work.[17][18]
The company's early hires included a nuclear physicist, acomputational neuroscientist, and a machinery expert who worked on predicting arrival times for Uber's cars more accurately thanGoogle APIs.[8][19] In April 2012, Uber launched a service in Chicago, whereby users were able to request a regular taxi or an Uber driver via its mobile app.[20][21]
In July 2012, Uber introduced UberX, a cheaper option that allowed drivers to use non-luxury vehicles, but still subject to having commercial licenses.[22][23]
On April 1st, 2013, after Wingz obtained the first legal rideshare license in the world, followed by Lyft and Sidecar, Uber announced in a white paper penned by Travis Kalanick that Uber was going to copy this model and add regular drivers with personal vehicles to the UberX platform instead of only commercially-licensed vehicles, subject to a background check, insurance, registration, and vehicle standards.[24][25][26] By December 2013, the service operated in 65 cities.[27]
In December 2013,USA Today named Uber its tech company of the year.[28]
While it was expanding, Uber generally commenced operations in a city without regard for local regulations. If faced with regulatory opposition, Uber called for public support for its service and mounted a political campaign, supported bylobbying, to change regulations.[33] Uber argued that it is "atechnology company" and not a taxi company, and therefore it was not subject to regulations affecting taxi companies.[33] Uber's strategy was generally to "seek forgiveness rather than permission".[34] In 2014, with regards to airport pickups without a permit in California, drivers were actually told to ignore local regulations and that the company would pay for any citations.[35]
Uber logo used from February 2016 until September 2018
In August 2016, facing tough competition, Uber sold its operations in China toDiDi in exchange for an 18% stake in DiDi.[36] DiDi agreed to invest $1 billion in Uber.[37] Uber had started operations in China in 2014, under the name 优步 (Yōubù).[38]
In 2016, Uber acquiredOttomotto, aself-driving truck company founded byAnthony Levandowski, for $625 million. Levandowski, previously employed byWaymo, allegedly founded Ottomotto using trade secrets he stole from Waymo. Uber settled a lawsuit regarding the use of such intellectual property and reached a deal to use Waymo's technology for itsfreight transport operations.[39][40]
In December 2016, Uber acquired Geometric Intelligence and its 15-person staff, which became "Uber AI", a division for researchingartificial intelligence andmachine learning.[41] Uber AI was shut down in May 2020.[42]
In July 2017, Uber received a five-star privacy rating from theElectronic Frontier Foundation,[47] but was harshly criticized by the group in September 2017 for a controversial policy of tracking customers' locations even after a ride ended, forcing the company to reverse its policy.[48]
Between May 2018 and November 2018, Uber offered Uber Rent powered byGetaround, apeer-to-peer carsharing service available to some users in San Francisco.[54]
In 2018, Uber formed a partnership with Autzu, a San Francisco-based ridesharing company. This collaboration provides Uber drivers with the opportunity to rent electricTesla on an hourly basis.[57][58][59]
In the summer of 2019, Uber announced layoffs of 8% of its staff and eliminated the position ofCOOBarney Harford.[62]
In October 2019, Uber acquired 53% of Cornershop, a provider of grocery delivery services primarily in Latin America.[63][64] In June 2021, it acquired the remaining 47% interest in Cornershop for 29 million shares of Uber.[65]
AfterCalifornia Assembly Bill 5 (2019) was introduced, Uber announced that it would not comply with the law, then engaged lobbyists and mounted a public opinion campaign to overturn it via a ballot.[33][66]
Between October 2019 and May 2020, Uber offered Uber Works, a mobile app connecting workers who wanted temporary jobs with businesses inChicago and Miami.[67][68][69]
In January 2020, Uber acquiredCareem for $3.1 billion[70] and sold its Indian Uber Eats operations toZomato.[71]
Also in January 2020, Uber tested a feature that enabled drivers at the Santa Barbara, Sacramento, and Palm Springs airports to set fares based on a multiple of Uber's rates.[72]
In May 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, Uber announced layoffs of over 14% of its workforce.[73][69]
In September 2020, Uber committed tocarbon neutrality globally by 2040, and required that, by 2030, in most countries, rides must be offered exclusively inelectric vehicles.[75][76][77]
In March 2021, the company moved to a new headquarters onThird Street inMission Bay, San Francisco, consisting of several 6- and 11-story buildings connected by bridges and walkways.[85]
In October 2021, Uber acquiredDrizly, an alcohol delivery service, for $1.1 billion in cash and stock; it was shut down in early 2024.[86][87]
On January 20, 2022, Uber acquired Australian car-sharing companyCar Next Door.[88]
In 2022, more than 124,000 internal documents covering the five-year period from 2012 to 2017 when Uber was run by Travis Kalanick were leaked by Mark MacGann, alobbyist who "led Uber's efforts to win over governments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa".[89] The documents were leaked toThe Guardian and first printed on 10 July 2022 by itsSunday sisterThe Observer. The documents revealed attempts to lobbyJoe Biden,Olaf Scholz andGeorge Osborne; howEmmanuel Macron secretly aided Uber lobbying in France, and use of akill switch during police raids to conceal data. The documents also revealed that Travis Kalanick dismissed concerns from other executives regarding possible violence from taxi drivers after sending Uber drivers to a protest in France, saying "I think it's worth it, violence guarantees success".[90]
In February 2023, Uber drivers went on strike in the US and UK to protest wages and fees. They were joined by drivers fromLyft andDoorDash delivery workers.[91]
The company posted its first operating profit in 2023.[92]
In March 2024,The Wall Street Journal reported a trend of popular service apps such as Uber increasing use of in-app advertising, including higher margin personalized content, to increase profits. Uber was showing customers one ad per trip and tried to implement push alerts but changed its strategy after criticism from customers.[93]
In July 2025, Uber partnered withBaidu to deploy Baidu'sself-driving cars on its platform outside of the U.S. and mainland China.[94]
On February 27, 2015, Uber admitted that it had suffered adata breach more than nine months prior. Names and license plate information from approximately 50,000 drivers were inadvertently disclosed.[97] Uber discovered this leak in September 2014, but waited more than five months to notify the affected individuals.[98]
An announcement in November 2017 revealed that in 2016, a separate data breach had disclosed the personal information of 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers. This data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and drivers' license information. Hackers used employees' usernames and passwords that had been compromised in previous breaches (a "credential stuffing" method) to gain access to a privateGitHub repository used by Uber's developers. The hackers located credentials for the company'sAmazon Web Services datastore in the repository files, and were able to obtain access to the account records of users and drivers, as well as other data contained in over 100Amazon S3 buckets. Uber paid a $100,000 ransom to the hackers on the promise they would delete the stolen data.[99][100] Uber was subsequently criticized for concealing this data breach.[101] Dara Khosrowshahi publicly apologized.[102][103] In September 2018, in the largest multi-state settlement of a data breach, Uber paid $148 million to theFederal Trade Commission, and admitted that internal access to consumers' personal information was closely monitored on an ongoing basis was false, and stated that it had failed to live up to its promise to provide reasonable security for consumer data.[104] In November 2018, Uber's British divisions were fined £385,000 (reduced to £308,000) by theInformation Commissioner's Office.[105]
On September 15, 2022, Uber discovered a security breach of its internal network by ahacker that utilizedsocial engineering to obtain an employee's credentials and gain access to the company'sVPN andintranet. The company said that no sensitive data had been compromised.[106][107]
Uber classifies its drivers asgig workers orindependent contractors, which has drawn criticism and legal challenges because it allows the company to withholdworker protections that it would have been required to provide to employees.[3][4]
In April 2021, an arbitrator ruled against Uber in a case involving Lisa Irving, a blind American customer with a guide dog who was denied rides on 14 separate occasions. Uber was ordered to payUS$1.1 million, reflecting $324,000 in damages and more than $800,000 in attorney fees and court costs.[108]
Taxi companies sued Uber, alleging that Uber's policy of violating taxi regulations was a form of unfair competition or a violation of antitrust law.[109] In the U.S., although some courts did find that Uber intentionally violated the taxi rules, Uber prevailed in every case, including the only case to proceed to trial.[110] In Australia, the company agreed to pay $178 million to settle allegations by taxi drivers.[111]
In March 2017, an investigation byThe New York Times revealed that Uber developed a software tool called "Greyball" to avoid giving rides to known law enforcement officers in areas where its service was illegal such as inPortland, Oregon,Australia,South Korea, andChina, leading to government inquiries. The tool identified government officials usinggeofencing, mining credit card databases, identifying devices, and searches of social media.[112][113][114] While at first, Uber stated that it only used the tool to identify riders that violated itsterms of service, after investigations byPortland, Oregon,[115][116][117] and theUnited States Department of Justice,[118][119][120] Uber admitted to using the tool to skirt local regulations and promised not to use the tool for that purpose.[121][122] The use of Greyball in London was cited byTransport for London as one of the reasons for its decision not to renew Uber's private hire operator licence in September 2017.[123][124][125]
A January 2018 report byBloomberg News stated that Uber routinely used a "panic button" system, codenamed "Ripley", that locked, powered off and changed passwords on staff computers when those offices were subjected to government raids.[126] Uber allegedly used this button at least 24 times, from spring 2015 until late 2016.[127][128]
The company claimed the kill switches were not intended to obstruct justice, but rather to protectintellectual property, customer privacy, and due process and that no data was permanently deleted, and was available for authorities to obtain later.[129]
Counter-intelligence research on class action plaintiffs
In 2016, Uber hired Ergo, a global security consulting firm, to secretly investigate plaintiffs involved in a class action lawsuit. Ergo operatives posed as acquaintances of the plaintiff's counsel and tried to contact their associates to obtain information. As a result, the judge threw out evidence that was obtained in a fraudulent manner.[130][131]
On February 19, 2017, former Uber engineerSusan Fowler published on her website that she was propositioned for sex by a manager and subsequently threatened withtermination of employment by another manager if she continued to report the incident. Travis Kalanick, the CEO at the time, was allegedly aware of the complaint.[132][133] On February 27, 2017,Amit Singhal, Uber's Senior Vice President of Engineering, was forced to resign after he failed to disclose asexual harassment claim against him that occurred while he served as Vice President ofGoogle Search.[134] After investigations led by former attorney generalEric Holder andArianna Huffington, a member of Uber'sboard of directors,[135] in June 2017, Uber fired over 20 employees.[136][137] Kalanick took an indefinite leave of absence but, under pressure from investors, he resigned as CEO a week later.[138][139] Also departing the company in June 2017 wasEmil Michael, a senior vice president who suggested that Uber hire a team of opposition researchers and journalists, with a million-dollar budget, to "dig up dirt" on the personal lives and backgrounds of journalists who reported negatively on Uber, specifically targetingSarah Lacy, editor ofPandoDaily, who, in an article published in October 2014, accused Uber ofsexism andmisogyny in its advertising.[140][141][142][143][144][145] In August 2018, Uber agreed to pay a total of $7 million to settle claims of gender discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environment, with 480 employees and former employees receiving $10,700 each and 56 of those employees and former employees receiving an additional $33,900 each.[146] In December 2019, Kalanick resigned from theboard of directors of the company and sold his shares.[147][148][149][150]
In 2020, theUS Department of Justice announced criminal charges against former Chief Security OfficerJoe Sullivan forobstruction of justice. The criminal complaint said Joe Sullivan arranged with Travis Kalanick's knowledge, to pay a ransom for the 2016 data breach as a "bug bounty" to conceal its true nature, and for the hackers to falsify non-disclosure agreements to say they had not obtained any data.[151]
In January 2024, Uber was fined €10 million by theDutch Data Protection Authority for violating privacy regulations pertaining to the personal data of its drivers. The authority determined that Uber had failed to provide clear information in its terms and conditions regarding the duration for which it retained drivers' personal data, as well as the measures taken to secure this data when transmitting it to undisclosed entities outside theEuropean Economic Area.[152]
In August 2024, Uber was fined €290 million by theDutch Data Protection Authority for transferring the personal data of European drivers to US servers in breach of theGDPR.[153]
In April 2025, theFederal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Uber, alleging that it enrolled some of its customers in the $9.99 monthly Uber One service without their consent, and used unlawful tactics to make cancellation difficult for consumers.[154]
Passenger safety and sexual assault lawsuits (2024)
In February 2024, a multidistrict litigation (MDL) was established in the Northern District of California against Uber Technologies, Inc., consolidating numerous claims from among the more than 3,000 sexual assault lawsuits filed against the company in state and federal courts.[155] These lawsuits allege Uber prioritized growth over safety by using inadequate background checks, skipping in-person driver vetting, and failing to invest in preventive measures such as cameras or monitoring systems.[156] It also claims Uber knowingly put vulnerable passengers, such as intoxicated women, at risk through its marketing and business practices. The litigation seeks injunctive relief, damages and changes to Uber's safety policies. Some survivors have chosen to pursue justice in state courts outside of the MDL, seeking faster resolutions and a more individualized approach.[157]
In 2020, 5,000 drivers filed wage and hour claims with the California labour commission office against Uber andLyft, alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors.Rideshare Drivers United in California claimed that at least 250,000 individual rideshare drivers in California who drove for the apps between 2016 and 2020 are estimated to be eligible for the settlement for wage theft claims of tens of billions of dollars.[158]
^Brandom, Russel; Hawkins, Andrew (July 10, 2016)."How Uber secretly investigated its legal foes — and got caught".theverge.com.The Verge. RetrievedJuly 18, 2022.By the end of the week, Henley was on the phone with a corporate research firm called Ergo, also known as Global Precision Research LLC, asking for help with "a sensitive, very under-the-radar investigation." After a few emails, Henley worked out the terms of the deal with an Ergo executive named Todd Egeland. It would be a "level two" investigation, the middle of the three levels of work offered by Ergo. It would be drawn from seven source interviews conducted over the course of 10 days, for which Uber would pay $19,500. As with any Ergo investigation, the confidentiality of the client was paramount, and sources were never meant to know who was paying for the research. "We do quite a bit of this work for law firms," Egeland reassured him. (Ergo did not respond to requests for comment.)
^Hiltzik, Michael (June 10, 2016)."Column: How sleazy is Uber? This federal judge wants to know".Los Angeles Times. RetrievedJuly 22, 2022.As it turns out, it was them. Uber confessed in February that it had hired the security firm Ergo to investigate Mayer and his lawyers. In fact, Meyer's lawyers say Ergo's investigative report was circulating in Uber's offices and may have been in the hands of the company's general counsel, Salle Yoo, on January 20, the very day the company's lawyers were saying "it is not us."
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