Uber Between Ambition and Focus: Is It Becoming a Super App?

A Quiet Expansion Beyond the Familiar

Uber is no longer just a ride-hailing or food delivery app. In recent months, the company has been quietly adding new services: hotel bookings in partnership with Expedia, boat rentals in Europe, and a shopping-on-your-behalf feature that lets users order from any local store — even ones not listed on Uber Eats. Behind the scenes, deeper initiatives are underway: debit cards for drivers, and driving data collected through a sensor-equipped vehicle fleet operated under a standalone business unit known as "AV Labs." All of this raises a legitimate question: where exactly is Uber headed?

Travel: The Third Pillar of Uber's Strategy

Sachin Kansal, Uber's Chief Product Officer, describes the travel vertical as "the third leg of the stool" alongside rides and delivery. The figure he cites is striking: 1.5 billion trips per year take place outside a user's home city, making travel a natural use case for Uber's vast customer base.

The core idea is straightforward: you book a hotel, need a ride from the airport, and want a meal without relying on room service. Uber wants to be the solution for all of that within a single app. However, the degree of integration varies by service. While the company built its hotel booking interface entirely within the app in collaboration with Expedia, its European boat rental service simply redirects users to the partner's platform. This graduated approach to integration is not improvisation — it's a deliberate strategy: test the concept first, then invest deeply if it proves successful.

Financial Services: Calculated Caution, Not Retreat

Kansal rejects the idea of classifying Uber alongside the "super app" model typified by Southeast Asia's Grab, insisting the company does not aim to be "everything to everyone." Yet its moves in financial services are worth tracking:

• For drivers and couriers: The "Uber Pro" card, which enables instant earnings transfers and functions as a direct debit card.
• For merchants: Early-stage trials of tailored financial products in select markets.
• For users: The "Uber Credits" ecosystem tied to the membership program, where subscribers receive 10% cashback on hotel bookings credited as balance redeemable on rides and orders.

The official stance acknowledges partnerships with specialized financial service providers at the point of payment, while keeping the door open without sliding into uncalculated expansion.

The Membership Program: The Hidden Growth Engine

"Uber One" now counts 51 million subscribers, representing roughly half of all bookings on the platform. More notably, the data reveals genuine cross-pollination: users who previously only used rides have started using delivery, and vice versa. Frequency within the core service also increases after subscription, as users need only two or three delivery orders to offset their monthly membership fee.

AV Labs and the Autonomous Vehicle Equation

Uber operates a fleet of sensor-equipped vehicles through its "AV Labs" unit, which runs independently from the traditional driver network. The stated goal is to strengthen relationships with autonomous driving partners — some of whom Uber holds equity stakes in. But the implicit objective is equally significant: owning the data layer gives the company leverage and room to maneuver against partners who could turn into competitors at any moment — with Waymo leading that list.

Delivery Profitability and a Field of Rivals

Uber Eats has demonstrated its ability to stand on its own after years of cross-subsidization from the rides division, having delivered standalone profits in recent quarters. On the competitive front, Kansal openly acknowledges formidable rivals: Lyft in the US market, Didi and 99 in Latin America, Bolt and Ola globally, and DoorDash and Delivery Hero in delivery. Yet he candidly states that he spends very little of his time thinking about competitors — a stance that reflects confidence more than indifference.

Conclusion: Selective Expansion, Not Scattered Growth

Uber is walking a fine line: broadening its service offering in ways that deepen user engagement with the platform, without falling into the trap of overextension that has derailed many tech companies that tried to replicate the "super app" model in markets very different from where it originated. The real bet is not on the number of services added, but on the company's ability to convince users that Uber is their go-to starting point — wherever they're headed.

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