The Uber files show how the cab-hailing app bulldozed its way into cities around the world through a combination of lobbying, manipulating tech, fighting regulations and exploiting drivers.
The leak of more than 124,000 documents to the Guardian, shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, shines a light on the period when Uber was at its most aggressive: between 2013 and 2017.
Here we trace the company’s history from scrappy upstart co-founded by Travis Kalanick to today’s humbled tech giant.
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2008: A cold night in Paris
The idea for the ride-hailing business comes “on a cold winter evening in Paris”, as Uber’s website will go on to recount, when entrepreneurs and computer engineers Kalanick and Garrett Camp are unable to get a taxi. “That’s when the idea for Uber was born.”
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2009: Foundation
The company is founded in San Francisco as UberCab. In the company’s first pitch deck for investors, Kalanick and Camp describe a professional car service that would provide a faster, luxury alternative to taxis and could be hailed via a mobile app.
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2010: First cars hit the road in San Francisco
Kalanick is appointed chief executive of Uber. On 5 July, the company receives its first ride request and cars hit the road in San Francisco. UberCab is immediately ordered to cease and desist with the threat of fines or even prison time.
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2011: New York launch
Uber launches in New York and is met with a great deal of opposition. It closes a series A funding round that values it at $60m. It launches in France, its first expansion outside the US.
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2012: To London and Amsterdam
The first Uber trip in London happens in June 2012, making the UK Uber’s second European market. Uber launches in Amsterdam, its third European city and the headquarters for Uber’s European business. By October 2012, Uber has a presence in 20 locations, according to its website.
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2013: Acceleration
Uber launches in more than 40 new locations worldwide. New countries include Italy, Germany, China, India and Russia. There are launches in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, marking its first African presence.
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2014: God View controversy and Delhi rape case
The former Barack Obama aide David Plouffe is hired to lead the policy team in August. In November, an Uber executive is investigated for using God View – a tool that allows it to monitor the movements of any customer – on a journalist. In December, Uber raises $1.2bn and is valued at $40bn. By now Uber says it is operating in 250 locations worldwide. Days later, an Uber driver rapes his passenger and the company is banned in Delhi. Uber launches in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and in Spain but has its operations suspended in the latter after a series of protests by taxi associations.
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2015: Kill switch deployed as Amsterdam offices raided
Uber offices in Amsterdam are raided for operating illegally. The company deploys a regulatory evasion tool called “kill switch” which shuts off access to computers when authorities enter the offices. Anti-Uber protests in France erupt in violence as taxi drivers attack drivers thought to be working for Uber. A group of US drivers file a class-action lawsuit against Uber and its competitor Lyft claiming that they are misclassified as independent contractors and instead should be treated as employees.
The company claims to have carried out 1bn trips worldwide since its 2010 launch. Uber Eats, its takeaway delivery service, debuts in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
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2016: China sell-off
In August, Uber sells its China operations to Didi, the first major retreat for a company hellbent on expansion. In September, Uber launches its first pilot of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, then rushes to launch a self-driving pilot in San Francisco in December that is quickly shut down for not seeking the city’s approval.
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2017: Annus horribilis
Uber faces a backlash for not shutting down surge pricing during a protest against the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, which prompts public calls to delete Uber. Weeks later, the former Uber staffer Susan Fowler publishes a blogpost detailing sexism and harassment she encountered at the company.
Many of the company’s other infractions come to light, leading to the departure of several executives. Google sues Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets from its self-driving arm. Uber hires the former US attorney general Eric Holder to conduct an investigation into all of the company’s issues. Holder and his law firm recommend that Kalanick has his responsibilities taken from him. Kalanick resigns. Dara Khosrowshahi is hired. Uber posts a net loss of $4.5bn.
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2018: Grab sale, Google settlement, 10bn trips
Uber sells its south-east Asian arm to its competitor Grab a year after selling its Russia operations to another competitor, Yandex. It settles the trade secret theft lawsuit brought by Google for $245m. The company claims to have doubled its trips in just over a year from 5bn on 20 May 2017 to 10bn on 10 June 2018.
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2019: Floating
Uber drops 7.6% on its first day of trading on the New York stock exchange on 10 May 2019. It claims to have reached 111 million active users in the final quarter of 2019, to have carried out 6.9bn trips across that year and to have 3.8 million drivers worldwide.
In the months after the stock market flotation, Kalanick sells more than $2.5bn of Uber shares and resigns from the board.
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2020: Self-drive sell-off
Uber sells its self-driving arm to the startup Aurora, ending its long-held ambitions to develop a vehicle that could replace drivers. Uber acquires its delivery competitor Postmates and merges it with its Uber Eats operation, signalling the company’s decision to prioritise food delivery. Uber and its counterparts in the gig economy spend more than $220m to push a ballot in California that would allow the company to continue to treat its drivers as contractors, breaking the record for money spent on a single ballot initiative in the state.
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2021: Record number of active users
The company claims to have a record 118 million active users. In a blow to Uber’s fight to preserve its model of using a workforce of freelancers, a UK court forces the company to treat its drivers as employees.
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2022: Uber files published
The Uber files expose 18.7GB worth of files showing the vast lobbying effort made by the cab-hailing company at a key time in its development. Uber posts another loss – of $5.9bn (£4.9bn) – in its most recent quarterly report. At the time of writing, the company claims to have operations in 1,200 locations worldwide.
