Slow Research Academy › Uber › Unit 0 “First Impressions”, lesson 1
Getting to know Uber: rides, food delivery and trucks for businesses
This unit asks: What kind of company is Uber?
Uber matches rides and deliveries through its platform. In its main model, drivers, fleet operators and merchants generally provide vehicles and kitchens. It operates in more than 70 countries; in 2025 Mobility and Delivery each had over $90 billion of Gross Bookings, and Freight was under 3%.
In more than 70 countries and about 15,000 cities, people use the same app to hail a ride, order food and buy groceries. That app is Uber.
In 2025, riders and eaters paid about $193.5 billion through it.
Uber connects customers with drivers, couriers and merchants, and handles pricing and payment
In the conventional human-driven ride and merchant-delivery model, drivers, fleet operators and merchants provide vehicles, delivery capacity and kitchens. Uber connects orders with these providers.
| Participant | Main contribution |
|---|---|
| Drivers or fleet operators | Vehicles and ride services |
| Delivery providers | Delivery capacity |
| Merchants | Kitchens, stores and goods |
| Uber | The app, dispatch, pricing, payment and trip insurance |
Drivers’ and couriers’ legal status depends on local rules and the specific arrangement. About 1.4 million merchants were on the platform in Q1 2026.
What Uber itself does is match each request with someone who can fill it: which driver to send, what to charge, and how to split the money it collects. In the main platform model, drivers or fleet operators generally provide the vehicles, and merchants provide the kitchens and stores.
You can think of it as a matching machine that runs city by city. In each city it needs enough riders and enough drivers before the machine can start turning.
Rides and food share one app; Freight is a separate app for businesses
Uber has three businesses, and its financial reports (the results a public company publishes every quarter) disclose each one separately.
Mobility covers ride-hailing, taxis, motorbikes and shared rides, booked by riders in the app. Delivery covers food delivery as well as groceries and retail goods, ordered in the same app.
Freight connects shippers with trucks and carriers. Its customers, its app and its supply of trucks are all separate from the other two.
To compare the size of the three, look at Gross Bookings: the total amount customers pay on the platform. The more money passes through a business, the bigger it is. Mobility and Delivery are about the same size.
| 2025 Gross Bookings | |
|---|---|
| Mobility | 97.5 |
| Delivery | 90.9 |
| Freight | 5.1 |
Gross Bookings include taxes and tolls but not tips. They are not the same as the company's revenue; Unit 1 explains the difference.
In 2025, Mobility was about half of all Gross Bookings, Delivery about 47% and Freight under 3%. The rest of the course focuses on Mobility and Delivery.
Available in 70-plus countries and about 15,000 cities, but not in mainland China or Southeast Asia
Uber operates in more than 70 countries and about 15,000 cities.
It does not operate directly in mainland China, Southeast Asia or Russia.
Its mainland China business was merged into Didi and its Southeast Asia business into Grab. Uber swapped those local businesses for shares in the two companies (a share is a slice of ownership) and still holds them. It has sold its stake in the Russian joint venture.
How those deals played out is covered in Unit 7, Lesson 2.
Covering many cities does not mean expanding all at once. The supply of drivers, couriers and merchants is local: a driver in London cannot take a trip in New York.
So in every new city, Uber first needs a local operating license and then enough drivers and riders, clearing the same hurdle one city at a time.
Three things to remember
- Providers supply services; the platform handles matching: In the main model, drivers or fleets generally provide vehicles and merchants provide kitchens. Uber handles matching, pricing, payment and trip insurance.
- Mobility and Delivery are similar in size: In 2025 Mobility had about $97.5 billion of Gross Bookings and Delivery about $90.9 billion; Freight, about $5.1 billion, serves businesses through a separate app.
- China and Southeast Asia became shares: Uber does not operate there directly but holds stakes in Didi and Grab; it operates in more than 70 countries and about 15,000 cities.
Open the classroom: quizzes, AI tutor and learning progress → Course contents
Slow Research Academy explains company fundamentals for learning and does not provide investment advice.