Your trusted travel companion and the largest cab aggregator on the planet, Uber, has today announced the completion of over 2 billion rides on the platform(now that calls for a celebration!!). The chief executive, Travis Kalanick broke the news of the milestone via a Facebook post, saying that it just took six months to reach the next billion.
The ride hailing has picked up and dropped more than a billion people to their destinations in just six months as compared to the six years it took the company to reach the first billion. As the populous got comfortable to the idea of ride-hailing services, the company spent a fortune to build their network of drivers and passengers. The first billion rides were made possible only because of the $13 billion in funding from investors.
The quick completion of the second billion can directly be attributed to the growth of the company in China, due to the increased competition with native ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing. Both the ride hailing services have a cut throat competition in China and are adding billions and billions of cash to their banks in an attempt to beat the other by a long mile.
You can only understand about the crazy growth and usage of Uber if you know that a single ride wasn’t responsible for pushing the ride-hailing service above the two billion mark. Kalanick in his post added that 147 Uber rides started at the exact same second on June 18, 4:16 A.M GMT to tie for the 2 billionth spot.
The trips were booked simultaneously in over 16 different countries from five continents, with a large chunk — 54 to be exact — of those coming in from China. The longest ride lasted over an hour in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, while the shortest ride — an Uber POOL in China– lasted only a measly three minutes.
He also added that in celebration of hitting the milestone, the company will be rewarding all 147 riders and crivers with a small token of gratitude in the form of $450 — with regard to its current presence in 450 cities around the world. Kalanick also attached a short timelapse video showing the 2 billion rides on the world map and further added that,
It took five years to reach our billionth trip, six months to reach the next billion … and we’ll hopefully reach our third even more quickly. Thanks to all the drivers out there for making every trip possible.
Uber has shown tremendous growth in the past six months, growing from about 311 cities to 450 in a short span of time. The company now valued at $62.5 billion, has recently received $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to take on the likes of Didi in China and Ola in India. Also, the company has added another $1.15 billion to its war chest in the form of leveraged loan instead of further diluting its equity.
