Uber has always wanted to be more than a ride; now it has an urgent reason

For years, Uber has talked about being a premium app. Then Waymo started offering rides in San Francisco, and the conversation quickly grew. The company has been trying to position itself within the AV industry – as a data provider, investor, and distribution platform – but the consumer bet may be important.

Two weeks ago, Uber held its annual GO-GET event in New York and announced what its managers have been talking about for a long time: users in the US can now book hotels within the Uber program, through a partnership with Expedia Group, with access to more than 700,000 places around the world. Uber One members — who subscribe to the company for $9.99 a month — get 20% off a rotating list of 10,000 hotels and 10% off credit. Vacation rentals through Vrbo will follow later this year, as will restaurant reservations through OpenTable. Currently, the “Shop for Me” feature allows users to order from stores that are not on the platform.

The announcements, taken together, were a very clear picture of what Uber has been trying to convey since 2019: that an app with 199 million monthly users can be an app that uses almost everything.

Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber’s CTO, explained the company’s philosophy to TechCrunch’s. StrictlyVC event at the end of last month in San Francisco. The idea of ​​a high-tech program has been around for years in India and Southeast Asia, he said, but US versions often bolt on cars instead of building them for a reason.

The answer to what is related? Membership. Every new category – food, dining, hotels – gives someone another reason to pay for Uber One. “I take an Uber, go to the airport, get on a plane, take another Uber, go to a hotel, go to a restaurant,” he said. “There’s a way you can make it.”

Airplanes are not available here, although the Nagas have not stopped them. Uber tried booking flights in Europe years ago but was unsuccessful. He said: “Let’s sort things out about the hotel first. Financial services also sound like a possibility – Uber already offers credit cards to Mexican drivers – although to what extent, or to what extent, is not yet known. Naga said: “Never say never.”

Uber is not alone in this race. Airbnb, undoubtedly the company that was most threatened by the push to the Uber hotel, announced its travel ambitions at the end of March – a partnership with Welcome Pickups to provide airport transfers in 125 cities in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, designed to keep users within the Airbnb program instead of sending them to Uber. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has spent three years promising to turn X into a “program for everything” in the mold of WeChat, and now he is approaching what he describes as his long-term goal: X Money, banking and payments built within the social network, is expected to be launched publicly soon. X claims 500 million monthly users.

The big question is how many programs the American market can support. WeChat works in China very slowly because the alternative was limited channels. In the US, people already have their favorite apps for most of what Uber wants to do. Getting them to integrate into one platform requires a good reason – an Uber One discount, say – or enough information that the change is justified.

Uber’s bet is that its install base is moat. Users have already provided a credit card. Encouraging them to book a hotel, or order from a restaurant they can’t find on Uber Eats, is an easy upgrade compared to getting them to download something new. Its latest earnings, reported a few days ago, show that Uber Eats can be a very strong argument for that opinion: delivery revenue grew 34% year-on-year in the first year, to $5.07 billion, making it the fastest growing segment of the business and attracting almost even the flow of investment.

Uber’s stock is still down about 8% from a year ago — meaning Wall Street isn’t entirely convinced. But the company does 50 million people are now paying for Uber One, and together they account for nearly half of the company’s total bookings.