DECISION TRAPS IN BUSINESS - UBER - ANALYSIS PART OF THE PAPER

Uber can be said to be one of the most fascinating companies the world has seen in the past decade. According to Dan Blystone in his article, Uber had an explosive growth with a net worth of about $70 billion, making it the highest valued private star up company.

There is an interesting story to how this interesting and rather controversial company was started. According to Blystone’s article, the idea was conceptualized on a winter night in Paris in 2008 after two friends Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp could not get a cab. The initial plan was to have a timeshare limo that can be ordered via an app. It seems the idea was just an idea put in the pipeline because nothing was done by the friends, well at least not together. They went their separate ways after their business in Paris and when Camp returned to San Francisco and put it in full gear.

He started by buying the domain name UberCab.com. and after that, this set up went quite quickly.

In 2009, Camp was still running his own company StumbleUpon and UberCab was his side project. He was able to bring his friend on board by the summer of 2009. There was a test run in New York early 2010 with only three cars then an official launch in San Francisco in May, 2010.

The app’s design is so user friendly and uncomplicated, its popularity rose quickly. A ride can be as easy as literally tapping a button on smart phone to order a ride, with GPS pinning your location. For payment, the cost for the ride is automatically taken from the card registered on the app.

With its rapid growth, came controversy for this company. Blystone said that some the controversies that include the fatal accident involving a self-driving Uber vehicle and when the New York City Council voted to put a pause on new licenses issued to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft set the company back, lowering its net worth to $48 billion. Despite this set back, its valuation is still higher than the bigger companies that have been here longer like General Motors and Ford.