The Amazonification of Uber: Part II

Three years ago, I wrote astir the Amazonification of Uber, an improvement of the proscription institution into a closed concern loop that feeds customers backmost into different Uber channels. At the time, the absorption was connected however Uber creates lawsuit stickiness by, for example, actively cross-selling nutrient transportation customers into grocery, and market into alcohol, and past intoxicant backmost into mobility. 

Today, Uber appears to beryllium moving beyond its absorption connected proscription and moving to go a convenient ace app, an aggregator of services, a daily-use manner level with its champion offerings tucked down a paywall. 

Case successful point: Uber this week is launching its archetypal Uber One Member Days, the company’s ain mentation of Amazon’s Prime Day. Prime Day is simply a two-day buying lawsuit exclusively for Amazon Prime members, a consumerist hype fest that leads radical to walk much than they usually would connected worldly objects due to the fact that THE DEALS! 

Amazon has seen income emergence each twelvemonth since launching the lawsuit successful 2015, and past year, the institution is estimated to person topped $14 cardinal successful sales.

Uber is simply a long, agelong mode distant from achieving specified scale, but the imaginable is determination fixed the company’s planetary presence, logistics technology, and web of drivers – some gig and autonomous. 

The archetypal Uber One Member Day goes from May 16 to 23 and promises tens of thousands of deals crossed Uber’s ain merchandise lineup arsenic good arsenic its assorted retail and hospitality partners.

Uber customers volition person entree to 20% disconnected Uber Black, 30% disconnected Uber Reserve, and 40% disconnected Uber Comfort. Other deals include: 

• 3,000 Delta Skymiles points for radical who’ve linked their Delta and Uber accounts and taken 10 trips during the week. 
• Oura rings discounts.
• $20 disconnected your adjacent Ticketmaster acquisition if you walk $3 connected groceries.
• Free nutrient from astir each accelerated nutrient restaurant, including a Chipotle burrito, a Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee, and a 10 portion chickenhearted nuggets from McDonald’s.  

“We privation to make delight for Uber One members,” Sachin Kansal, Uber’s main merchandise officer, told TechCrunch. “This should beryllium a large savings play for them. But besides for folks who are not members close now, it’s a large mode for them to get an instauration into rank arsenic they go members during this period.”

Uber is ever moving to turn its Uber One rank base, which is astatine astir 30 cardinal members today. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the company’s first-quarter net telephone past week that members “tend to person precocious retention.”

“They walk 3 times much than non-members, arsenic well,” Khosrowshahi said. 

As Uber works to aggregate much partnerships extracurricular of nutrient and market transportation (just look astatine its caller tie-up with Home Depot) and harvester those deals with its rank program, the institution is mirroring Amazon’s evolution. Amazon started arsenic a integer bookseller. Then it began selling everything. Now it besides owns the infrastructure for some e-commerce and integer life, whether that’s AWS unreality services oregon Prime Video. 

For many, Amazon is simply a mode of life. With Uber One Member Days, the institution is signaling that it, too, wants that benignant of ubiquity. And it’s betting that asset-light mobility – not packages delivered successful Rivian vans – could beryllium the adjacent backbone of integer user culture.