Uber's Super App Ambitions Take Shape
Uber has been talking about becoming a super app for years, but the conversation grew more urgent when Waymo started picking up passengers in San Francisco. The company has been trying to embed itself inside the AV industry as a data provider, investor, and distribution platform, but the consumer-facing bet may be just as important.
Uber's Hotel Booking Partnership: A Key Piece of the Puzzle
Two weeks ago, Uber held its annual GO-GET product event in New York and announced a major partnership with Expedia Group. Users in the U.S. can now book hotels inside the Uber app, with access to over 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 20% off a rotating list of 10,000 hotels and 10% back in credits. Vacation rentals through Vrbo will follow later this year, along with restaurant reservations via OpenTable.
- The "Shop for Me" feature lets users order from stores that aren't even on the platform.
According to Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's CTO, the super app concept has existed for years in India and Southeast Asia, but U.S. versions have mostly flopped by bolting services onto traffic rather than building toward a reason to stay. His answer to what fits? Membership. Every new category - food, groceries, now hotels - gives someone another reason to pay for Uber One.
"I take Uber, go to the airport, take a flight, take another Uber, go to a hotel, go to a restaurant," he said. "There is a flow you can actually build into it."
Flights are not available yet, though Naga didn't rule them out. Uber tried flight booking in Europe years ago without success. "First let's get the hotel things done," he said.
The Competition Heats Up
Uber isn't alone in this race. Airbnb announced its own transportation ambitions in late March - a partnership with Welcome Pickups to offer airport transfers in 125 cities across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, structured to keep users inside the Airbnb app rather than sending them to Uber. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has spent three years promising to turn X into an "everything app" in the WeChat mold, and is now nearing what he describes as a long-stated goal: X Money, a banking and payments platform built inside the social network, is expected to launch publicly soon.
- X claims 500 million monthly active users.
A Compelling Reason to Stay
Uber's bet is that its installed base is the moat. Its users have already handed over a credit card. Convincing them to book a hotel, or order from a store they'd never find on Uber Eats, is an easy lift compared with convincing them to download something new. Its most recent earnings suggest Uber Eats may be the strongest argument for that thesis: delivery revenue grew 34% year over year in the first quarter, to $5.07 billion, making it easily the fastest-growing part of the business and pulling almost even with mobility in gross bookings.
Uber's stock is still down about 8% from a year ago - suggesting that Wall Street isn't fully convinced. But the company says that 50 million people are now paying for Uber One, and together they account for roughly half the company's total bookings.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence.