IIRC, a lot of that was enabled (at least in the US) by the wider-scale rollout of 3g and smartphones. Before that, not only did few people have smartphones (ub

IIRC, a lot of that was enabled (at least in the US) by the wider-scale rollout of 3g and smartphones. Before that, not only did few people have smartphones (uber initially had both a website and phone number you could contact to get a ride for at least a few years), but even metropolitan service areas were too spotty for near-realtime apps to work effectively.