Uber’s messy journey: A timeline

With the release of the Uber files, the ride sharing company is once again in the spotlight, and once again, for the wrong reasons. But before the leaks that implicate senior government officials across the world came to be, the company was founded based on the fact that sometimes, getting a taxi was hard. 

Also Read: What are the Uber Files?

Here’s a look at how the company where the company started and where it is now.

2008: No cabs in Paris
Computer engineers Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were unable to find a taxi in Paris on a cold night, according to Uber’s website. And so, “the idea for Uber was born.”

2009: Uber is born
Uber wasn’t always called Uber. It first started out as UberCab in San Francisco. At the time, the app was positioned as the luxury alternative to taxis and would provide better service. 

Also read: Who is Travis Kalanick?

2010: New cabs in town
Travis Kalanick found himself becoming the Chief Executive Officer of Uber. That same year, the San Francisco Metro Transit Authority and the Public Utilities Commission of California sent the company a cease and desist for having unlicensed cabs on the road. Members of the company are threatened with prison time.

2011: The midnight cab in New York
Despite severe opposition from the city’s taxi unions, Uber finds a foothold in New York. Subsequently, the company expands to France, its first seat of expansion outside America.

2012: Cabs worldwide
Uber finds itself in London and Amsterdam. The Dutch capital becomes the company’s European headquarters. By 2012, the company was servicing 20 locations according to a web archive of their website. 

2013: Rapid Expansion
The company launches in more than 40 new locations across the world. It launches in a few more European nations as well as India. It also finds its way to Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, in the company’s push to enter Africa. 

2014: More Expansion
The company now services more than 250 locations. The company is valued at $40 billion. It launches in Saudi Arabia and Spain but has its operations suspended thanks to protests from taxi unions.

2015: New apps and 1 billion trips
Uber launches its food delivery service, UberEats. The app premieres in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The company claims that it has conducted 1 billion trips since it first launched in 2010.

2016: Reducing size
Uber sells its Chinese arm to Didi, the first of many such withdrawals. That same year, the company makes a self-driving car play in Pittsburgh, but almost immediately have to shut it down because they didn’t get the city’s permission.

2017: The bad year
The company’s many issues come to light. Kalanick is asked to resign, which he does. The company posts losses worth $4.5 billion. The company sells its Russian arm to Yandex, a competitor.

2018: Reducing size 2.0
The ride-sharing platform sells their East Asian arm to Grab, another competitor. It settles an IP lawsuit with Google for $245 million

2019: Poor day trading
On its first day on the New York Stock Exchange, share prices drop by 7.6%. Kalanick sells $2.5 billion worth of shares and excuses himself from the company’s board.of directors.

2020: Reducing size 3.0
Uber sells their self-driving arm to Aurora. The company buys out Postmates, a food delivery app and merges it with UberEats. Later that year, the company and other similar platforms push hard to prevent California from passing legislation that would ensure Uber drivers would be treated as employees and not contractors. The lobbying works and drivers continue to remain contractors, i.e, they lack access to any of the benefits that are afforded to full time employees. 

2021: Record user base
Last year, the company claimed that it had created a new record for itself, with 118 million active users. The same year, a UK court forces the company to recognise drivers as employees and not contract workers.