How Uber wants to change the world and Why it will have to change itself.

The idea for Uber was probably the purest distillation of an ethos which would appeal to all Silicon Valley technologists (in fact, tech lovers everywhere). The fact that you can pull out your smartphone and know with exact certainty how far the nearest cab was and when you can get a ride. Using a mobile phone to literally change the world, one taxi ride at a time. 

That was what Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, two serial entrepreneurs, set out to do in 2009 with a little app called Uber (initially UberCab). Their aim was simple, use the power of the internet to connect a cab driver (or a regular driver) with the customer and to ensure, that the customer is never left stranded without transport on a stormy night. Their stated intention (as with most high-minded Silicon Valley startups) was much more complicated, to make using Uber cheaper than owning a car. With the Uber Partner app installed, anyone with a car (in the US and a few other countries) could switch on the app and earn a few extra bucks (over his / her livelihood) taxiing folks around. The ability to track your taxi, see your driver details and his / her rating and a three level background verification system (although how stringent and effective this seems to vary as per this account) ensured rocketing popularity among the smartphone totting populace in San Francisco. The model was simple, unique and disruptive. 

Fast forward 5 years and that little app, and the company it front ends is worth $40billion, and has spread to over 45 countries and over 200 cities. The thought that you can travel halfway across the world and yet use the very same app, using the very same process to have something as physical as a taxi ride instantaneously delivered to you, regardless of whether you are in Bangalore or New York, constitutes probably the best implementation of a connected, smaller, "mobile / digital" world (Amazon and Ebay are probably right up there as well). 

The ride to super - startup status has been controversial, to put it mildly. The company has managed to rile everyone from taxi drivers and their unions (very expected, since their model was being disrupted), to government officials, competitors, financiers, its partner drivers and even end users. Most of it has to do with their ultra-aggressive, take no prisoners approach to business. Kalanick makes no bones about how Uber sees the emerging ride sharing app market, to him market share is paramount. "You have to win 98 (percent) to 2." (something that you see across the tech world, be it Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Android in their respective areas). Of course, if Uber has its way, taxis are just the beginning. As they are fond of saying, If we can get a taxi to you in 5 minutes, what else can we deliver? 

Their modus operandi to any market is simple, enter quickly, hook the customers in by using promotions, establish the service firmly in the customer's mind and get entrenched, all before the slow-moving government machinery wakes up to react (perfectly illustrated by how they entered Portland and of course India). The company has also employed dubious means of undermining Lyft (a serious competitor in the US) by contacting prospective Lyft investors and informing that they would not be able to invest in Uber should they pump in money into Lyft (not to mention, its downright unscrupulous campaign of causing ride cancellations for the genial, un-Uber-ly Lyft).

Welcome to the Real World

Now, of course, governments and judiciary are starting to wake up. Banning Uber and imposing huge fines have been a common outcome of governments wielding its immense power. Uber's meteoric rise has also probably come too quick for the firm, as it comes under fire across the world (the service has been banned in India, various parts of South East Asia, Spain and Holland in the last one week alone). A classic case of grandiose Silicon Valley ambitions meeting cold hard reality (in this case, a reality filled with riled administrators, taxi unions and drivers). Uber's wilful manipulation of loopholes and lax regulation is beginning to catch up with it, hastened of course, by the unfortunate incident in Delhi. While the future of the company is not at stake (the company is in the process of raising a further $600M from Chinese search giant, Baidu), this spate of bad news means that Uber will find itself at the mercy of the very same social network effect that made it an overnight success. 

Time to roll with the punches

To respond, the company needs to ensure that it shows a humility and willingness to change that has so far eluded it. While Uber along with its brethren (Ola and TFS) are asking the drivers to submit more information and a comprehensive background check (along the lines of its US operations) has to be mandatory, the company also has to own up to its slip up and commit to doing better, publicly. Even better, would be suitable modifications to its app to account for a safety-deficit country like India (especially for women passengers). A crisis response call center, to be used only for emergencies, is definitely needed. Uber has to respond with the innovation and customer orientation that it initially made its name for, rather than the grittiness and nastiness that has purportedly come to be its hallmark. 

Because, the world needs Uber, but a humbler and nicer one!