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Take a look at Uber’s first pitch deck from 2008

14 points by ohjeez 9y ago

theCricketer 9y ago
Note how Uber doesn't even mention plans for an Android app in 2008. Fast forward 10 years, 80% of smartphone shipments are Android phones.
- SilasX 9y ago
  They also supported the text-message version as a primary use case. I don't think they do that anymore; you have to use an external service [1] to get that functionality. Btw, you might be interested in this snapshot of the Uber home page from January 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.com/learn https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.c... [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/06/15/no-smartphone-now-you-can-hail-an-uber-via-text-message-textber/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/06/15/no-smartph...
- yodon 9y ago
  Android sales in 2008 were so minimal that market share articles from back then don't even bother quoting nunbers - even Windows Mobile was a more significant player than Android in 2008.[0] [0]https://www.engadget.com/amp/2008/12/04/iphone-triples-market-share-in-q3-2008/ https://www.engadget.com/amp/2008/12/04/iphone-triples-marke...
kabes 9y ago
So they made their best case scenario, but they didn't make their realistic success scenario (yet).
zzalpha 9y ago
Fascinating that they mentioned taxi medallions as part of their market and benefits analysis, yet completely ignored regulatory hurdles... you gotta wonder if that was accidental or deliberate. I want to say accidental, but given what we've seen from their leadership, I'm not so sure...
- kartD 9y ago
  At that point they intended to be a taxi company, they actually got their current idea from... Lyft. They first tried to ligate and stop them and when they failed, they pivoted and out executed them
  - zzalpha 9y ago
    That would seem to only emphasize my point... if you're planning to be a taxi company, it would seem you'd be even more likely to fall afoul of regulations if you don't play by the rules designed to cover taxi companies. In short: I don't think your comment actually addresses my point. Again, they're basically silent on this topic in the deck, which might be accidental, but feels like an odd omission. If I read between the lines, it seems like they thought that because they avoid street hails, and because it was pitched as an invite-only service, somehow they puts them outside the existing regulatory structure. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that was at best a very naive assumption.

14 points by ohjeez 9y ago

Note how Uber doesn't even mention plans for an Android app in 2008. Fast forward 10 years, 80% of smartphone shipments are Android phones.

SilasX 9y ago
They also supported the text-message version as a primary use case. I don't think they do that anymore; you have to use an external service [1] to get that functionality. Btw, you might be interested in this snapshot of the Uber home page from January 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.com/learn https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.c... [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/06/15/no-smartphone-now-you-can-hail-an-uber-via-text-message-textber/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/06/15/no-smartph...
yodon 9y ago
Android sales in 2008 were so minimal that market share articles from back then don't even bother quoting nunbers - even Windows Mobile was a more significant player than Android in 2008.[0] [0]https://www.engadget.com/amp/2008/12/04/iphone-triples-market-share-in-q3-2008/ https://www.engadget.com/amp/2008/12/04/iphone-triples-marke...

kabes 9y ago

So they made their best case scenario, but they didn't make their realistic success scenario (yet).

zzalpha 9y ago

Fascinating that they mentioned taxi medallions as part of their market and benefits analysis, yet completely ignored regulatory hurdles... you gotta wonder if that was accidental or deliberate. I want to say accidental, but given what we've seen from their leadership, I'm not so sure...

kartD 9y ago
At that point they intended to be a taxi company, they actually got their current idea from... Lyft. They first tried to ligate and stop them and when they failed, they pivoted and out executed them
- zzalpha 9y ago
  That would seem to only emphasize my point... if you're planning to be a taxi company, it would seem you'd be even more likely to fall afoul of regulations if you don't play by the rules designed to cover taxi companies. In short: I don't think your comment actually addresses my point. Again, they're basically silent on this topic in the deck, which might be accidental, but feels like an odd omission. If I read between the lines, it seems like they thought that because they avoid street hails, and because it was pitched as an invite-only service, somehow they puts them outside the existing regulatory structure. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that was at best a very naive assumption.