Print

Preface and Acknowledgments We are fascinated by collaborative consumption that occurs within the context of the sharing economy and how companies such as Uber and Airbnb have challenged industries and changed consumption patterns within a span of a few short years. In fact, Pia took her fi rst solo Uber ride in Santa Rosa, California, in 2017. When Luis, the Uber driver, arrived in his brand-new Prius, Pia, ever curious about collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer sharing activities, proceeded to have an interesting con- versation with him about his experiences as an Uber driver. This curiosity has remained so that, having researched various aspects of collaborative consumption for over 10 years, we embraced the opportunity to write this book, Uber , as part of Greenwood/ABC-CLIO’s Corporations That Changed the World series. Uber, through its technological platform approach, truly is a company that has changed the world: its innovations have advanced quickly, and it has disrupted various marketplace sectors, most notably the ride-hailing industry. In this book, we tell the story of Uber from its inception in 2009 to present. First, for the sake of transparency, despite having utilized Uber’s ser- vices when traveling in larger metropolitan areas on many occasions, we do not claim to be “expert” Uber users. We have relied primarily on news- paper sources, Uber’s many websites (including their brand extensions such as Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and Uber Health), and other credible sources on Uber and the sharing economy. With this said, in this book, we present a snapshot of what we fi nd to be the most descriptive characteristics of Uber as an organization, includ- ing the main events that have shaped its culture, and its astounding inno- vative capabilities. Accustomed to writing scholarly articles, this project proved to be more challenging than we anticipated. Besides the sheer vol- ume of information available about the company as well as the speed with