Date of Graduation

5-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Finance

Advisor/Mentor

Cawthon, Michael

Committee Member/Reader

Brownback, Andrew

Abstract

Uber Technologies (Uber) is a mobile ride request company founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. Initially named “UberCab”, the company began offering black car services in San Francisco via an iPhone app. Beginning in May 2011, Uber expanded to a new city each month, moving into New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C that year. The company also expanded internationally in December 2011, moving into Paris. After only its first six months of operation, Uber had already gained nearly 6,000 users and done close to 20,000 rides. The company expanded to its first international city, Paris, in December of 2011. As of February 2016, the company operates in over 377 cities worldwide.

Uber has had a variety of economic impacts on the cities that it has moved into. This paper will focus primarily on the city of New York, New York and how Uber has changed the transportation industry there. The focus will be placed on 1) the decline in the price of taxi medallions, 2) the change in productivity and utilization of assets, 3) the inflow of new capital into the city, 4) the increased accessibility to affordable transportation for many in the city. Uber currently has over 90% market share in the smartphone-ride hailing application market, so it can be assumed that the majority of the effects discussed in this paper are by and large due to Uber, as opposed to much smaller competitors such as Lyft.

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