In the Ride Sharing war over the World Dominance. We have a clear Winner: @SoftBank.
Year 2009
UBER: Founded in year 2009, When it had no competitors like today except the old school taxi companies. As people started relying more and more on smart phones. It wasn't a bad idea, where one can be able to book a ride in real time and then pay for the ride digitally all through an app installed on an smart phone. That is what made Uber undefeated.
Year 2011
By year 2011, people started to understand the full potential of Ride Sharing business and began comparing Uber to the Silicon Valley tech Giants Facebook and Google.Uber Dominating the world in Ride Sharing was just a matter of time as it had already expanded to major cities of other countries: Seoul, Mumbai, Toronto, Sydney, London, Brussels, Tokyo.
image: uber
year 2014 onwards:
In year 2014, Uber was valued 17 Billion Dollars. It seemed like Uber was unstoppable. However year 2014 was destined to be pivotal year for the ride sharing industry not because of Uber success but because of this other company SoftBank. In year 2014 Japan's SoftBank made its move to invest heavily in Ride Sharing Industry around the Globe.
The Uber that was seemingly unstoppable in year 2014, turned out Uber might be unstoppable in United States but when it came out of United States it got road blocked everywhere. The rosy image of Uber dominating the entire industry is no more and the reason for all the road blocks is SoftBank.
SoftBank Buys All:
If you don't know about Soft Bank? You must know its most successful investment Alibaba, the amazon of China. SoftBank owns about 30% of Alibaba and is filthy rich ever since it's investment in Alibaba SoftBank maintained very strong presence in China and therefore when Didi the competitor of Uber came out in China.SoftBank became one of it's early investor and owned 20% of Didi and this was only the first step of SoftBank in Ride-sharing Business. The second, step was to compete heads on with Uber, it's only competitor. In 2014, SoftBank made its move and invested heavily in Uber's competitors by investing in Grab Taxi in South East Asia, Ola in India, Taxify in Europe and in Lyft. Uber's direct competitor in United States.
So, the scene was set and Uber had to fall in line. SoftBank delivered its final blow in year 2017 when it invested over 9 Billion Dollars in Uber, Buying over 15% of Uber itself. And this move have proven to be Genius, Making SoftBank the puppet master behind most Ride Sharing companies in the world. With the rumor that Grab Taxi is taking over Uber's businesses in South East Asia. I think we know who's calling the shots or perhaps pulling the strings in ride sharing industry now.