What is Uber’s business model?

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Chapter 2 in Creative Destruction and the Sharing Economy, 2017, pp 36-62 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: What is Uber’s business model? Uber capitalizes on convenience. In order to do so, it identifies idle capacity, aggregates it and allocates it to consumers willing to pay the price. Uber is an intermediary of idle capacity. This intermediation happens at lower costs, which allows Uber to create value-added to customers. It makes finding a taxicab easier, it provides different service levels, it gives information about the quality and price of the ride and it allows interaction. This value-added is redirected at the company in form of feedback by the customers prompting their trust and loyalty. Characterizing Uber as an intermediary, as a technology platform offering its services as a matchmaker for those willing to sell spare capacity of cars to those willing to pay for this capacity, is therefore correct. Uber could have applied this business model to other different sectors, but it chose transportation. Transportation, however, is not the core of what Uber is. Rather, it is just its application.

Keywords: Economics and Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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