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Big Data at Uber – A Success Story

Uber which was founded in March 2009 is an American mobility service provider. Uber is based in San Francisco and is currently operating in over 900 metropolitan areas worldwide. Uber has found out to be a very convenient way for middle-class and upper-class as well to travel from one place to another. Not only that, all types of transportation services are offered by Uber thereby opening opportunities to thousands of employees.

Statistical Data

Below are some statistical facts and figures relevant to Uber.

According to Wikipedia, it has been found out in 2021, Uber was able to make a big family of 101 million monthly active users worldwide.
With that, Uber in the United States has a market share of 68% for ride sharing.
Similarly, it has a 26% market share for food delivery in the United States.
The total number of employees working at Uber as of 2019 is 26,900.
Uber is available in 69 countries.

Services it Provide

Uber provides a lot of services including,

Ride hailing.
Food delivery.
Package delivery.
Couriers
Freight transportation.
Electric bicycle.
Ferry transportation.

And many more.

How it Works?

Uber does not own any vehicles instead what they do is let ordinary people make a good use out of their vehicles. Whenever a ride is booked, Uber gets a 25% commission. A customer at the time of booking gets information about the fare in advance to get an idea of the bill. But the actual bill can vary at the end of the ride depending on certain factors.

Success Story of Uber:

Now comes the actual part of our today’s discussion that is, the success story of Uber. How it was able to succeed in such a short time and how big data at uber played a vital part in their success.

The entire Uber business is rooted firmly in Big Data at uber. The company’s CEO Travis Kalanick explains that they have managed to leverage this big data in a more effective and meticulous way and that has led to their huge success. In other words, Uber’s entire business model is based on what we call the Big Data principle of crowd sourcing. It means anyone who has a car of their own and is willing to earn money and help others get to where they want can start earning today.

Now how this all actually works and the big data principle of crowd sourcing is applied?

Well, Uber has a vast database of drivers who are available in all of the cities they are covering. So whenever a passenger is requesting for a ride, Uber because of the big data principle is able to match the passenger with the most suitable driver. You can also checkout Data science & Big Data courses at our platform.

Fares in this regard is also calculated using GPS, street data. With that, Uber has made their own algorithms that help them make adjustments based on irregularities in the journey or the time it takes to complete the journey.

Use of Big Data-informed Pricing:

As we have just discussed earlier, the actual price can be varied from what is quoted while booking a ride. That is why the surge pricing algorithms are here to help Uber monitor traffic conditions and the time it will take to complete the ride. Now what’s the catch here? Well, this encourages more drivers to hit the roads when they are needed. And when the demand is low, they can stay at home. You might also be interested in 3 best Big Data certifications at takethiscourse.net.

Use of Rating System:

With big data at Uber, you get the option to rate drivers and drivers on the other hand also get a chance to rate their customers. The purpose of providing this service at both ends is to build up trust and allow both sides to make up their mind about who they want to share a car with.

Drivers because of the rating system have to stay conscious and make sure to provide comfortable journey to their passengers so as to keep their profile rating up. It is because if their rating is below the average one then they can be fired. This helps Uber maintain a high standard.

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Final Thoughts

As you can see, a business can become the most successful one if they have the ability to make the best use of their available data. And this is exactly what Uber did. It managed to use all the available data to make this business the most successful one. Not only the customers feel safe and happy riding through Uber, but riders also get to earn well out of it and so does Uber. Thus this is a win-win situation for everyone all thanks to big data.

TTC Team