Correct me if i'm wrong, but Uber started out as a service that connected people without a ride to those who happened to be on the road within a few miles away and willing to give a lift for a few bucks. So what happened? Did Uber pivot or did people start building their lives around Uber and became dissatisfied with the their business model? I don't quite understand this mainly because I don't live in a city where Uber is very popular.
> "Correct me if i'm wrong, but Uber started out as a service that connected people without a ride to those who happened to be on the road within a few miles away and willing to give a lift for a few bucks"
This never happened, as much as Uber would like to imagine themselves a grassroots, populist movement.
Uber started out a service that connected black cars/limos to riders. The idea was to provide competition to taxis, and the easiest existing source of professional drivers was limo drivers, who had a great deal of down time between bookings - and Uber helped fill in the gaps and provide extra income.
Uber was never a "connect riders to random people willing to give a lift" - other companies tried this model, most notably Sidecar, though even then I think most of its driver-base were at least semi-profesisonal.
