Uber has always wanted to be more than just a ride; Now she had reason to hurry

For years, Uber has talked about becoming a super app. Then Waymo started carrying passengers from San Francisco, and the conversation became more urgent. The company is trying to embed itself within the autonomous vehicle industry — as a data provider, investor, and distribution platform — but its consumer-facing bet may be just as important.

Two weeks ago, Uber held its annual GO-GET product event in New York and announced something its executives have been mulling over for a long time: U.S. users can now book hotels within the Uber app, through a partnership with Expedia Group, with access to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members — the company’s $9.99-a-month subscription tier — get a 20% discount on a rotating list of 10,000 hotels and 10% credits back. Vacation rentals will be offered through Vrbo later this year, along with restaurant reservations through OpenTable. Meanwhile, the “Shop for Me” feature allows users to order from stores that aren’t even on the platform.

Taken together, these announcements were the most realistic picture yet of something Uber has been trying to conjure since at least 2019: that an app with 199 million monthly active users could become the app they use for almost everything.

Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber’s chief technology officer, gave the clearest explanation of the company’s thinking at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event late last month in San Francisco. He noted that the super app concept has been around for years in India and Southeast Asia, but US versions have mostly failed by tying services to traffic rather than building on a reason to stick around.

His answer to what is appropriate? membership. Each new category — food, groceries, and now hotels — gives someone another reason to pay for Uber One. “I take an Uber, I go to the airport, I take a flight, I take another Uber, I go to a hotel, I go to a restaurant,” he said. “There’s a flow you can really build on.”

Flights are not yet available, although Naga has not ruled them out. Uber has been trying to book flights in Europe for years to no avail. “First, let’s finish up the hotel stuff,” he said. Financial services seem like a possibility as well — Uber already offers a debit card to drivers in Mexico — though how far that could go, or when, remains unclear. “Never say never,” said the Naga.

Uber is not alone in this race. Airbnb, arguably the company most directly threatened by Uber’s hotel crackdown, announced its own transportation ambitions in late March — a partnership with Welcome Pickups to offer airport pickups in 125 cities across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, designed to keep users inside the Airbnb app rather than sending them to Uber. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has spent three years promising to turn X claims 500 million monthly active users.

The big question is how many super apps the US market will actually support. WeChat works in China in part because the alternative was a hodgepodge of poor options. In the US, people already have apps they love for most of what Uber wants to do. Getting them integrated within a single platform requires either a compelling reason — Uber One discounts, for example — or a seamless enough experience to make the switch worthwhile.

Uber’s bet is that its installed base is the moat. Its users have already handed over the credit card. Convincing them to book a hotel, or ordering from a store they’ve never found on Uber Eats, is a cakewalk compared to convincing them to download something new. Its latest earnings, reported a few days ago, suggest that Uber Eats may be the strongest case for this thesis: Delivery revenue grew 34% year-over-year in the first quarter, to $5.07 billion, easily making it the fastest-growing part of the business and roughly tied with Mobility in total bookings.

Uber stock is still down nearly 8% from a year ago — suggesting Wall Street isn’t entirely convinced. But the company says 50 million people now pay for Uber One, and together they represent nearly half of the company’s total bookings.