Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a technology platform that uses a massive network, leading technology, operational excellence and product expertise to power movement from point A to point B. We develop and operate proprietary technology applications supporting a variety of offerings on our platform (“platform(s)” or “Platform(s)”). We connect consumers (“Rider(s)”) with independent providers of ride services (“Mobility Driver(s)”) for ridesharing services, as well as with other forms of transportation including public transit. We also connect Riders and other consumers (“Eater(s)”) with restaurants, grocers and other stores (collectively, “Merchants”) with delivery service providers (“Delivery People”) for food, grocery and other delivery services. Riders and Eaters are collectively referred to as “end-user(s)” or “consumer(s).” Mobility Drivers and Delivery People are collectively referred to as “Driver(s).” We also connect consumers with public transportation networks. We use this same network, technology, operational excellence and product expertise to connect shippers with carriers in the freight industry.
Our technology is available in approximately 71 countries around the world, principally in the United States (“U.S.”) and Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia (excluding China and Southeast Asia).
Our Segments
As of December 31, 2020, we had four operating and reportable segments: Mobility, Delivery, Freight and Advanced Technologies Group (“ATG”) and Other Technology Programs. Mobility, Delivery and Freight platform offerings each address large, fragmented markets. ATG and Other Technology Programs is focused on the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicle and ridesharing technologies, as well as Uber Elevate. On December 7, 2020, we announced the sale of Apparate USA LLC (“ATG Business” or “Apparate”), our subsidiary focused on the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicle technologies, to Aurora Innovation, Inc. (“Aurora”). Our ATG Business is included within our ATG and Other Technology Programs segment. On January 19, 2021, we completed the sale of our ATG Business to Aurora.
Mobility
Mobility refers to products that connect consumers with Mobility Drivers who provide rides in a variety of vehicles, such as cars, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, minibuses, or taxis. Mobility also includes activity related to our Uber for Business (“U4B”), Financial Partnerships, Transit and Vehicle Solutions offerings.
We believe that our ridesharing category position is a key indicator of our progress towards our massive market opportunity. We calculate our ridesharing category position based on the best available data within a given region. For example, in most cases we divide our Mobility Gross Bookings by our estimates of total ridesharing Gross Bookings generated by us and other companies with similar ridesharing products. We estimate our total ridesharing Gross Bookings in a given region by utilizing internal source data, including historical trip, bookings, product mix, and fare information, and external source data provided by publicly available information and marketing analytics firms. Based on these estimates, we believe we have a leading ridesharing category position in every major region of the world where we operate. We also participate in certain regions through our minority-owned affiliates. At the time of entering into such transactions, we believed based on our internal estimates using the information then available to us that each of Didi, Grab, and Yandex.Taxi, on a pro forma basis, had the leading ridesharing category position in its respective market.
During 2020, we completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Careem Inc. (“Careem”). Dubai-based Careem was founded in 2012, and provides primarily ridesharing and payments services to millions of users in cities across the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. For additional information, see Note 18 – Business Combinations included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Delivery
Our Delivery offering allows consumers to search for and discover local restaurants, order a meal, and either pick-up at the restaurant or have the meal delivered and, in certain markets, also includes offerings for grocery and convenience store delivery as well as select other goods. We launched our Delivery app over five years ago. We believe that Delivery not only leverages, but also increases, the supply of Drivers on our network. For example, Delivery enables Mobility Drivers to increase their utilization and earnings by accessing additional demand for trips during non-peak Mobility times. Delivery also expands the pool of Drivers by enabling people who are not Mobility Drivers or who do not have access to Mobility-qualified vehicles to deliver meals on our platform. In addition to benefiting Drivers and consumers, Delivery provides Merchants with an instant mobile presence and efficient delivery capability, which we believe generates incremental demand and improves margins for Merchants by enabling them to serve more consumers without increasing their existing front-of-house expenses.
During 2020, we received regulatory approvals to purchase a controlling interest in Cornershop Cayman ("Cornershop”"), operating an online grocery delivery platform primarily in Chile and Mexico. We also completed the acquisition of Postmates Inc. (“Postmates”) in an all-stock transaction and both companies began the process of integrating U.S. operations. The acquisition of Postmates brings together our global Mobility and Delivery platform with Postmates’ business in the United States to strengthen the
4
delivery of food, groceries, essentials, and other goods. For additional information, see Note 18 – Business Combinations included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Freight
We believe that Freight is revolutionizing the logistics industry. Freight leverages our proprietary technology, brand awareness, and experience revolutionizing industries to connect carriers with shippers on our platform, and gives carriers upfront, transparent pricing and the ability to book a shipment. The freight industry today is highly fragmented and deeply inefficient. It can take several hours, sometimes days, for shippers to find a truck and driver for shipments, with most of the process conducted over the phone or by fax. Procurement is highly fragmented, with traditional players relying on local or regional offices to book shipments. It is equally difficult for carriers to find and book the shipments that work for their businesses, spending hours on the phone negotiating pricing and terms. These inefficiencies adversely impact both shippers and carriers, and contribute to the number of non-revenue or “dead-head” miles, which are miles driven by carriers between shipments. Freight greatly reduces friction in the logistics industry by providing an on-demand platform to automate and accelerate logistics transactions end-to-end. Freight connects carriers with shippers available on our platform, and gives carriers upfront, transparent pricing and the ability to book a shipment with the touch of a button.
We serve shippers ranging from small- and medium-sized businesses to global enterprises by enabling them to create and tender shipments with a few clicks, secure capacity on demand with upfront pricing, and track those shipments in real-time from pickup to delivery. We believe that all of these factors represent significant efficiency improvements over traditional freight brokerage providers.
ATG and Other Technology Programs
The ATG and Other Technology Programs segment is primarily responsible for the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicle and ridesharing technologies, as well as Uber Elevate. On December 7, 2020, we announced the sale of our ATG Business to Aurora. Our ATG Business is included within our ATG and Other Technology Programs segment. On January 19, 2021, we completed the sale of our ATG Business to Aurora. Also on January 19, 2021, we made a $400 million cash investment in Aurora and entered into a collaboration agreement with Aurora pursuant to which the parties will collaborate with respect to the launch and commercialization of self-driving vehicles on our ridesharing network. We plan to continue to partner with Aurora to effectively leverage our network during the transition to autonomous vehicle technologies. For additional information, see Note 9 – Assets and Liabilities Held for Sale included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Platform Synergies
Our Platform
The foundation of our platform is our massive network, leading technology, operational excellence, and product expertise. Together, these elements power movement from point A to point B.
Massive Network Our massive, efficient, and intelligent network consists of tens of millions of Drivers, consumers, Merchants, shippers and carriers, as well as underlying data, technology, and shared infrastructure. Our network becomes smarter with every trip. In approximately 10,000 cities around the world (as of January 1, 2021), our network powers movement at the touch of a button for millions, and we hope eventually billions, of people.
Leading Technology We have built proprietary marketplace, routing, and payments technologies. Marketplace technologies are the core of our deep technology advantage and include demand prediction, matching and dispatching, and pricing technologies. Our technologies make it extremely efficient to launch new businesses and operationalize existing ones.
Operational Excellence Our regional on-the-ground operations teams use their extensive market-specific knowledge to rapidly launch and scale products in cities, support Drivers, consumers, Merchants, shippers, and carriers, and build and enhance relationships with cities and regulators.
Product Expertise Our products are built with the expertise that allows us to set the standard for powering movement on-demand, provide platform users with a contextual, intuitive interface, continually evolve features and functionality, and deliver safety and trust.
We intend to continue to invest in new platform offerings that we believe will further strengthen our platform and existing offerings.
We believe that all of these synergies serve the customer experience, enabling us to attract new platform users and to deepen engagement with existing platform users. Both of these dynamics grow our network scale and liquidity, which further increases the value of our platform to platform users. For example, Delivery attracts new consumers to our network—for the three months ended December 31, 2020, over 56% of first-time Delivery consumers were new to our platform. Additionally, for the three months ended December 31, 2020, consumers who used both Mobility and Delivery generated 11.1 Trips per month on average, compared to 5.1
5
Trips per month on average for consumers who used a single offering in cities where both Mobility and Delivery were offered. We believe that these trends will improve as we further leverage the power of our platform.
With our platform, we are making it even easier for our consumers to unlock convenience. Our Uber Pass and Eats Pass membership programs are designed to make utilizing our suite of products a seamless and rewarding experience for our consumers. We exited 2020 with over 5 million members for our Uber Pass, Eats Pass and Postmates Unlimited membership programs. In 2020, we rolled out our “Super App” view on iOS and Android, which combines our multiple offerings into a single app and is designed to remove friction for our consumers, positioning Uber to become the operating system for your everyday life.
Competitive Environment
We compete on a global basis in highly fragmented markets. We face significant competition in each of the mobility and delivery industries globally and in the logistics industry in the United States and Canada from existing, well-established, and low-cost alternatives, and in the future we expect to face competition from new market entrants given the low barriers to entry that characterize these industries. As we and our competitors introduce new products and offerings, and as existing products evolve, we expect to become subject to additional competition. While we work to expand globally and introduce new products and offerings across a range of industries, many of our competitors remain focused on a limited number of products or on a narrow geographic scope, allowing them to develop specialized expertise and employ resources in a more targeted manner than we do. The competition we face in each of our offerings includes:
• Mobility . Our Mobility offering competes with personal vehicle ownership and usage, which accounts for the majority of passenger miles in the markets that we serve, and traditional transportation services, including taxicab companies and taxi-hailing services, livery and other car services. In addition, public transportation can be a superior substitute to our Mobility offering and in many cases, offers a faster and lower-cost travel option in many cities. We also compete with other ridesharing companies, including certain of our minority-owned affiliates, for drivers and riders, including Lyft, Didi, OLA, Bolt, and our Yandex.Taxi joint venture.
• Delivery . Our Delivery offering competes with numerous companies in the meal, grocery and other delivery space in various regions for drivers, consumers, and merchants, including DoorDash, GrubHub, Deliveroo, Glovo, Rappi, iFood, Delivery Hero, Just Eat Takeaway, and Amazon. Our Delivery offering also competes with restaurants, meal kit delivery services, grocery delivery services, and traditional grocers.
• Freight . Our Freight offering competes with global and North American freight brokers such as C.H. Robinson, Total Quality Logistics, XPO Logistics, Convoy, Echo Global Logistics, Coyote, Transfix, DHL, and NEXT Trucking.
Government Regulation
We operate in a particularly complex legal and regulatory environment. Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. federal, state, local and foreign laws, rules, and regulations, including those related to Internet activities, privacy, cybersecurity, data protection, intellectual property, competition, consumer protection, payments, labor and employment, transportation services, transportation network companies, licensing regulations and taxation. These laws and regulations are constantly evolving and may be interpreted, applied, created, or amended, in a manner that could harm our business. Examples of certain laws and regulations we are subject to are described below.
Mobility
Our platform, and in particular our Mobility products, are subject to differing, and sometimes conflicting, laws, rules, and regulations in the numerous jurisdictions in which we operate. A large number of proposals are before various national, regional, and local legislative bodies and regulatory entities, both within the United States and in foreign jurisdictions, regarding issues related to our business model.
In the United States, many state and local laws, rules, and regulations impose legal restrictions and other requirements on operating our Mobility products, including licensing, insurance, screening, and background check requirements. Outside of the United States, certain jurisdictions have adopted similar laws, rules, and regulations while other jurisdictions have not adopted any laws, rules, and regulations which govern our Mobility business. Further, certain jurisdictions, including Argentina, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain, the six countries that we have identified as expansion markets, have adopted laws, rules, and regulations banning certain ridesharing products or imposing extensive operational restrictions. This uncertainty and fragmented regulatory environment creates significant complexities for our business and operating model.
Substantially all states in the United States and numerous municipalities in the United States and around the world have adopted Transportation Network Company (“TNC”) regulations. These regulations generally focus on companies that operate websites or mobile apps that connect individual drivers with their own vehicles to passengers willing to pay to be driven to their destinations. These regulations often require TNCs to comply with rules regarding, among other things, background checks, vehicle inspections, accessible vehicles, driver and consumer safety, insurance, driver training, driver conduct, and other similar matters.
6
In addition, many jurisdictions have adopted regulations that apply to how we classify the Drivers who use our platform. For example, California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB5”), which went into effect in January 2020, codified a test to determine whether a worker is an employee under California law. The California Attorney General, in conjunction with the city attorneys for San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, filed a complaint under AB5, alleging that drivers are misclassified, and sought an injunction and monetary damages related to the alleged competitive advantage caused by the alleged misclassification of drivers. The Court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining Uber and Lyft from classifying drivers as independent contractors during the pendency of the lawsuit. We unsuccessfully appealed this injunction to the California Court of Appeal, which affirmed the lower court’s ruling and held that we must comply with the preliminary injunction order. In November 2020, California voters approved Proposition 22, a California state ballot initiative that provides a framework for drivers that use platforms like ours for independent work. Proposition 22 went into effect in December 2020 and we expect that Drivers will be able to maintain their status as independent contractors under California law and that we and our competitors will be required to comply with the provisions of Proposition 22. See the section titled “Risk Factors” included in Part I, Item 1A and “Note 15 - Commitments and Contingencies” to our consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
In addition, many jurisdictions have municipal bodies that adopted and will adopt regulations that govern our business. For example:
• In London, Transport for London (“TfL”) scrutinizes our business on an on-going basis and we are subject to license reviews at renewal. In November 2019, TfL declined to issue us a license, finding that we were not “fit and proper,” including with respect to confidence in our change and release management processes. We successfully appealed and in September 2020, Westminster Magistrates Court granted us an 18 month operating license on largely the same conditions as our previous license, finding us a fit and proper person.
• Since April 2019, Mexico City’s Secretaría de Movilidad passed several amendments to existing ridesharing regulations implementing certain operational requirements, including a prohibition on the use of cash to pay for ridesharing services and, effective as of November 2019, a comprehensive TNC data sharing requirement and a requirement that Drivers in Mexico City obtain additional licenses and annual vehicle inspections to provide ridesharing services. Except for the vehicle inspection, we obtained an injunction against such operational requirements which, if implemented without modification, could have a negative impact on our business and our failure to comply with such regulations may result in a potential revocation of our license to operate in Mexico City.
• In January 2019, we suspended our Mobility products in Barcelona after the regional government enacted regulations mandating minimum wait times before riders could be picked up by ridesharing drivers.
• In addition, in August 2018, New York City approved regulations for the local for-hire market (which includes our ridesharing products), including a cap on the number of new vehicle licenses issued to drivers who offer for-hire services. In December 2018, New York City also established a standard for time and distance designed to establish a minimum pay standard for drivers providing for-hire services in New York City, such as those provided by Drivers on our platform. These minimum rates took effect in February 2019. Since implementation, these regulations have had an adverse impact on our financial performance in New York City and may continue to do so the future. In August 2019, New York City issued a regulation to limit how much time drivers providing ride-hailing services can spend cruising streets in busy areas of Manhattan without passengers. In December 2019, a New York state judge struck down this regulation, which was to come into effect in February 2020. New York City is appealing this ruling. Additionally, in November 2019, a ballot measure to impose a surcharge on ridesharing trips in San Francisco was approved by voters in San Francisco. This surcharge took effect on January 1, 2020. In addition, in October 2020, the Seattle City Council passed a minimum pay standard for drivers providing services on our platform that went into effect on January 1, 2021, and other jurisdictions have in the past considered or may consider regulations which would implement minimum wage requirements or permit drivers to negotiate for minimum wages while providing services on our platform. Similar legislative or regulatory initiatives are being considered or have been enacted in countries outside the United States.
• In December 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) ruled in the Elite referral case that the peer-to-peer ridesharing service UberPOP was inherently linked to a transport service and, accordingly, must be classified as “a service in the field of transport” within the meaning of applicable European Union (“EU”) legislation rather than an information society service. This ruling requires us to comply with national laws, rules, and regulations, if any, governing transport services in respect of the specific UberPOP product. The majority of our ridesharing products in the EU currently operate under licensing regimes where one or more of Mobility Drivers, vehicles, or we are required to register or hold licenses to provide services. As such, while Member States can decide how to interpret this CJEU ruling in their national laws, rules, and regulations in accordance with applicable EU law, we believe the ruling will have a limited impact on our business and operations.
• In 2015, German authorities banned our peer-to-peer ridesharing product, UberPOP, after a court ruled that it violated local applicable laws, including transport laws, by intermediating riders with drivers operating without professional licenses.
7
• In Italy, while we currently have limited ridesharing operations through our licensed ridesharing product, UberBLACK, in Rome and Milan and a taxi product in Turin, we continue to face limitations due to extensive operational requirements faced by licensed drivers.
See the section titled “Risk Factors” included in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” for more information. This uncertainty and fragmented regulatory environment creates significant complexities for our business and operating model.
As we continue to expand our offerings, we may be subject to additional regulations separate from those that apply to our Mobility products.
Data Privacy and Protection
Our technology platform, and the user data we collect and process to run our business, are an integral part of our business model and, as a result, our compliance with laws dealing with the collection and processing of personal data is core to our strategy to improve platform user experience and build trust. Regulators around the world have adopted or proposed requirements regarding the collection, use, transfer, security, storage, destruction, and other processing of personally identifiable information and other data relating to individuals, and these laws are increasing in number, enforcement, fines, and other penalties. Two examples of such regulations that have significant implications for our business are the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), a law which went into effect in May 2018 and implemented more stringent requirements for processing personal data relating to individuals in the EU, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”), which went into effect in January 2020 and established new consumer rights and data privacy and protection requirements for covered businesses.
Payments and Financial Services
Most jurisdictions in which we operate have laws that govern payment and financial services activities. For example, our subsidiary in the Netherlands, Uber Payments B.V., is registered and authorized as an electronic money institution in support of certain payment activities in the European Economic Area (the “EEA”). Regulators in certain additional jurisdictions may determine that certain aspects of our business are subject to these laws and could require us to obtain licenses to continue to operate in such jurisdictions. In addition, laws related to money transmission and online payments are evolving, and changes in such laws could affect our ability to provide payment processing on our platform. We are continuing to evaluate our options for seeking further licenses and approvals in several other jurisdictions to optimize payment solutions and support future growth of our business.
Antitrust
Competition authorities closely scrutinize us under U.S. and foreign antitrust and competition laws. An increasing number of governments are enforcing competition laws and are doing so with increased scrutiny, including governments in large markets such as the EU, the United States, Brazil, and India, particularly surrounding issues of predatory pricing, price-fixing, and abuse of market power. In addition, governmental agencies and regulators may, among other things, prohibit future acquisitions, divestitures, or combinations we plan to make, impose significant fines or penalties, require divestiture of certain of our assets, or impose other restrictions that limit or require us to modify our operations, including limitations on our contractual relationships with platform users or restrictions on our pricing models.
Intellectual Property
We believe that our intellectual property is essential to our business and affords us a competitive advantage in the markets in which we operate. Our intellectual property includes the content of our website, mobile applications, registered domain names, software code, firmware, hardware and hardware designs, registered and unregistered trademarks, trademark applications, copyrights, trade secrets, inventions (whether or not patentable), patents, and patent applications.
To protect our intellectual property, we rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, contractual provisions, end-user policies, and disclosure restrictions. Upon discovery of potential infringement of our intellectual property, we assess and when necessary, take action to protect our rights as appropriate. We also enter into confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and seek to control access to, and distribution of, our proprietary information in a commercially prudent manner.
Research and Development
Because the industries in which we compete are characterized by rapid technological advances, our ability to compete successfully depends heavily upon our ability to ensure a continual and timely flow of competitive new offerings and technologies. We continue to develop new technologies to enhance existing offerings and services, and to expand the range of our offerings through research and development (“R&D”) and acquisition of third-party businesses and technology.
Seasonality
Mobility
We typically generate higher revenue in our fourth quarter compared to other quarters due in part to fourth-quarter holiday and business demand, and typically generate lower revenue in our third quarter compared to other quarters due in part to less usage of our
8
platform during peak vacation season in North America and Europe. We have typically experienced lower quarter-over-quarter growth in Mobility in the first quarter. In 2020, we experienced less seasonality as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, which altered typical travel patterns. We expect that seasonality will eventually return to its historic patterns as recovery from the pandemic continues.
Delivery
We typically expect to experience seasonal increases in our revenue in the first and fourth quarters compared to the second and third quarters, although the historical growth of Delivery has masked these seasonal fluctuations. In 2020, we experienced less seasonality as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions, which accelerated the growth of Delivery in 2020 as cities imposed dining restrictions and shelter in place orders.
Human Capital at Uber
Employees
We are a global company and as of December 31, 2020, we and our subsidiaries had approximately 22,800 employees globally and operations in approximately 71 countries and approximately 10,000 cities around the world. Our human capital strategies are developed and managed by our Chief People Officer, who reports to the CEO, and are overseen by the Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors.
Our success depends in large part on our ability to attract and retain high-quality management, operations, engineering, and other personnel who are in high demand, are often subject to competing employment offers, and are attractive recruiting targets for our competitors.
To attract and retain the best talent, we strive to establish a culture where people of all backgrounds can find a sense of belonging and are able to achieve to their highest capability. We measure how successful we have been in establishing the culture we need through employee engagement surveys and related tools. We have historically conducted a semi-annual workforce survey that measures employee engagement, overall satisfaction, and well-being. We see the results as feedback on our company culture and use them to measure our progress in improving our employees’ experiences at work, identifying new goals and actions, and making adjustments as needed. In addition to the engagement survey results, we also monitor the health of our workforce and the success of our people operations through monitoring metrics such as attrition, retention, and offer acceptance rates, as well as sexual orientation, gender and ethnic diversity.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our employees and our workforce management strategy. In response to the economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business, in May 2020, we announced reductions in workforce of approximately 6,700 full-time employee roles.
In addition, we asked that all employees who were able to do so work remotely. These decisions, as well as COVID-19 more generally, introduced new dynamics into the households of many of our employees. As a result, we found that some employees were struggling with work-life balance and feelings of stress and social isolation. The issues of stress and balance were particularly exacerbated among caregivers of young children. To address some of these concerns, we instituted the Global Caregiver Enhanced Flexibility Policy for COVID. While we had been encouraging flexibility, this written policy provides clarity around the flexible work options available to parents and caregivers. We also amplified our focus on mental health.
For additional discussion, see the risk factor titled “—Our business depends on retaining and attracting high-quality personnel, and continued attrition, future attrition, or unsuccessful succession planning could adversely affect our business.” included in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as our 2020 People and Culture Report.
Diversity and Inclusion
We celebrate differences, and we work hard to ensure that people of diverse backgrounds feel welcome and valued. We encourage different opinions and approaches to be heard, and then we come together and build. We believe that when employees feel empowered to succeed in a work environment that celebrates, supports, and invests in diversity, progress follows.
We encourage employees who believe they, or any other employee, have been subjected to discrimination to notify their manager, Uber’s People Team or the Integrity Helpline.
Our Board of Directors recognizes the strategic importance of these issues and incorporated workforce diversity performance metrics into the compensation packages of our most senior executives in 2019 and 2020, in furtherance of our company-wide One Uber objective.
In 2020, much of our responsibility to cultivate greater equity and inclusion focused on the new normal introduced by COVID-19. As a company that powers movement, it is our goal to ensure that everyone can move freely and safely, whether physically, economically, or socially. To do that, we strive to help fight the racism that persists across society, be a champion for equity, and create opportunities for all, both inside and outside our company. In July 2020, we publicly committed to becoming an anti-racist company. Some of our commitments to anti-racism include:
9
• Ridding our platform of racism
• Fighting racism with technology
• Sustaining equity and belonging for all
• Driving equity in the community
For more information regarding our Diversity and Inclusion efforts, please see our 2020 People and Culture Report and our 2020 ESG Report, which are available on our investor relations website. The information in these reports is not a part of this Form 10-K.
Other Resources
In addition to employees discussed above, our business also depends on our ability to attract and engage Drivers, consumers, merchants, shippers, and carriers, as well as contractors and consultants that support our global operations.
In relation to those individuals who earn income on our platform, Uber is one of the largest open platforms for work in the world, providing accessible, flexible work in approximately 71 countries. Drivers are key parts of the marketplaces that Uber has created through its apps. A diverse set of people choose to use our platform to earn income without having to apply for, or work the fixed schedules associated with, traditional employment. We believe this flexibility is an improvement over traditional work schedules and is something we believe can and should remain available to anyone who chooses platform-based work. Uber monitors regional and global driver attraction, retention and satisfaction rates. In a 2020 global survey of Mobility Drivers, approximately 78% reported being satisfied with their experience driving with Uber.
Accessible, flexible, independent work has offered an option for many workers historically marginalized from the labor market and has enabled wide geographic coverage and reliable service offerings for consumers. However, it is increasingly clear that more can be done to improve the experience of using an app to connect with work opportunities. Although the situation varies from country to country, the benefits and protections for independent workers are generally patchy compared with those that employees receive. The current binary system of employment classification means that a worker is either an employee who is provided significant social benefits or an independent worker who has access to relatively few. This does not have to be the case. At Uber, we believe that being your own boss should not have to come at the expense of security and dignity in work. Around the world, Uber has found innovative ways to address these issues.
• Protections and benefits : We partner with leading insurance companies around the world to pioneer protections for independent workers, and recently started to implement additional protections and benefits for Drivers in California pursuant to the passage of Proposition 22, as described in more detail below.
• Earnings : We are continually developing new technology that Drivers can use to acquire information that may help them save on costs and make informed choices about where and when to drive (based on when and where their earnings potential is highest). In addition to tips, Drivers using Uber’s platform have earned over $133 billion from the end of 2015 through the end of 2020.
• Progression : We have partnered with Arizona State University to offer eligible Drivers and their family members access to over 100 undergraduate degree programs, courses in English language learning, or a certificate in entrepreneurship. In 2020, Drivers enrolled in over 3,200 courses in continuing professional education (entrepreneurship and English language learning) and over 2,300 undergraduate courses with Arizona State University online through our Uber Pro program.
• Advocacy : We have also advocated for wider policy solutions to improve access to protections and benefits for independent workers. We believe all work should be treated equally. We also believe that legislative reform is needed to modernize the social safety net. This includes requiring Uber—and other app based companies—to provide benefits and protections to their users without compromising the flexibility of their use of the app. In California, for example, we supported a state ballot initiative, Proposition 22, that California voters approved in November 2020 that provides a framework for drivers that use platforms like ours for independent work. Proposition 22:
◦ establishes that app-based drivers are independent contractors and not employees;
◦ establishes a guaranteed minimum earnings floor for drivers;
◦ provides for occupational/accident insurance for injury protection;
◦ provides a subsidy for healthcare expenditures of app-based drivers; and
◦ establishes due process provisions and protection against discrimination and harassment for app-based drivers.
• Engagement : We are focused on listening to and responding to the ideas and concerns of Drivers and merchants who use our platform. We believe that the best ideas can come from anywhere, both inside and outside our company. In locations around the world, we are piloting innovative ways for Drivers to participate in meaningful dialogue with us. In markets across the world, we hold regular meetings with Driver associations and conduct regular surveys to gather feedback on our app, our support services, and other matters.
10
For additional discussion, see the risk factor titled “—If we are unable to attract or maintain a critical mass of Drivers, consumers, merchants, shippers, and carriers, whether as a result of competition or other factors, our platform will become less appealing to platform users, and our financial results would be adversely impacted.” included in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well our 2020 ESG Report and our 2020 People and Culture Report.
Additional Information
We were founded in 2009 and incorporated as Ubercab, Inc., a Delaware corporation, in July 2010. In February 2011, we changed our name to Uber Technologies, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 1515 3rd Street, San Francisco, California 94158, and our telephone number is (415) 612-8582.
Our website address is www.uber.com and our investor relations website is located at https://investor.uber.com. The information posted on our website is not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “Exchange Act”) are also available free of charge on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, as part of our investor relations website. The contents of these websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this report or in any other report or document we file.