automobiles and hold the potential for early market leadership in
other transport markets, in alternative power generation, and in other
uses of electricity in the digital age.
Still, there remain two big obstacles to Tesla in its race to the
stable. First, it’s not yet a global firm—the majority of its business is
done in the United States. Second, Tesla doesn’t have a ton of
customers, so it doesn’t possess data on individual behavior at scale
yet. But its cars are data-collecting machines, so the challenge here is
scale and execution, not the underlying capability.
Uber
As I write this, around 2 million people drive for Uber (called “Driver
Partners”), which is more than the total number of employees of Delta,
United, FedEx, and UPS^20 combined. Uber adds 50,000 or more
drivers per month.^21 The service is available in more than 81 countries
and 581 cities.^22 And it’s winning in (most of) those markets.
In Los Angeles, only 30 percent of ride-hailing trips were in taxis
in 2016.^23 In New York, almost the same number of cabs and Ubers
are hailed daily (327,000 vs. 249,000).^24 For many urban dwellers
around the world, Uber has become their default transportation
solution, the dominant brand in a space that was previously a
hodgepodge of local operators and a penchant for yellow.
These days Uber is the first and last thing I spend money on in
every city I visit. Imagine paying $100 every time you entered or left a
city or country. That’s the relationship the global business person, a
very attractive segment, has with Uber... or Uber has with us.
I get off the plane in Cannes, France, where I’m speaking at the
Cannes Creativity Festival (“The What-Advertising-Sucks-Least
Festival”). There’s the Uber app on my phone. I see UberX,
UberBLACK, and something called UberCopter. My finger dives to
that UberCopter button on my phone reflexively—who wouldn’t want
to know what this is? I get a call ten seconds later saying, “Meet me at
baggage claim.”