Concept in Definition ABC

Its mere name makes politicians and legislators tremble because of the problems it entails; anger taxi drivers, who feel their business threatened deep down; and finally wakes up snorts from admiration among many of its users, who thank it for the "democratization" of the car transport sector.

Its name is Uber and, for the moment, it seems to be here to stay.

Uber was born in 2009 in San Francisco with one purpose: to get a better price for car rental with a driver.

These vehicles have always had a more expensive price than conventional taxis because they are considered luxury vehicles, and that is why the founders of Uber (two technological entrepreneurs called Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp) looked for a way to facilitate a decrease in cost by allowing the sharing of the same vehicle between several people, creating a app.

Uber approves the vehicles with which professionals carry out their service transport, being very demanding at the beginning and allowing the offer of its service only with black cars, which It is the color that we all usually associate with the limousines and luxury vehicles that circulate through our cities.

After a successful start and a gradual expansion, Uber segmented its offer for different types of public from the same app.

Thus, the range of cars that can be hired through the app has been increased to include simpler and, therefore, cheaper vehicles. With this, he opened the door to individuals without category chauffeur professional, offer their services through the app with their personal vehicle.

This was and continues to be Ubert's most controversial point, the one that transport professionals, and especially taxi drivers, complain about.

In various cities around the world there have been demonstrations and protests against Uber, while in other places, the app has been simply and outright banned.

Uber spans cities, that is, when it arrives in a country it is not immediately available throughout the world. territory, but it is first reaching the main cities and then spreading to other secondary ones.

Another segmented service that Uber has is that of luxury car rental with a chauffeur. There is, in addition, a service for black cars (for the aforementioned), and another for vehicles that are not dark, and which is slightly cheaper.

In addition to strictly cars, Uber has also launched a service to rent other types of vehicles, such as SUVs (SUVs designed more for use in the city, with consistent design) and trucks.

Some analysts align Uber with the companies and initiatives resulting from the new economy collaborative, while others argue that this classification It is not correct, since the main beneficiaries are its owners.

Related to the latter, there have also been controversies so much about the treatment that Uber dispenses to the drivers who work with it (both in the monetary field and in the personnel), as well as in the relationship of the company with its own workers, going so far as to accuse the company american of exploitation.

Uber's model could have been inspired by AirBnB's, earlier in a year, and very similar in certain respects.

Photos: Fotolia - Darenwoodward - Kevin