Uber - Everyone’s Private Driver™

Uber, one of the fastest growing technology companies in Silicon Valley, is a software technology company that connects drivers and riders. The company has made a name for itself as a disruptive business that is innovating urban transportation in many parts of the world.

Recently, Fast Company named Uber #1 Innovative Company in Mobile, and #6 Most Innovative Company- ahead of likes of Samsung, Google, and Apple.

The impressive list of world-class VCs who have invested in Uber include, Google Ventures & TPG for USD258 million, Goldman Sachs, Benchmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO).

Uber is also known to be popular amongst celebrities and athletes, from Shaquille O’Neal to Britney Spears.

Uber co-founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience building successful startups. Mr. Travis Kalanick and StumbleUpon Founder, Mr. Garrett Camp, initially came up with the idea of Uber during the 2008 LeWeb Conference in Paris, where taxis are notoriously unreliable.

Allen Penn, Uber Technologies' Head of Asia. briefed the media during Uber Malaysia launch.

Uber launched in June 2010 in San Francisco and expanded to over 20 cities by the end of 2012. In the past six months, the company’s growth has accelerated especially on a global scale. With its expanding list of over 65 cities in 25 countries that include London, Paris, Washington DC, Munich, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Bangalore, Manila, Seoul, Taipei and now Kuala Lumpur, Uber wants to bring world-class transportation solutions to world-class cities. Uber plans to expand to more neighboring mega-cities in the Asian region within the next year.

I call this 6 Uber Steps

Uber first entered the Asian market in February of 2013, by launching in Singapore. The company began beta-testing its product in several other Asian cities after that and finally made it’s way to Kuala Lumpur in late October 2013, making it the 6^th city in Asia.

There are many reasons why Uber decided to come to Kuala Lumpur:

ü  Kuala Lumpur has a high Smartphone penetration which is rapidly climbing month on month. Malaysians are comfortable adopters of new technology and are very open to trying new concepts.

ü  Uber can bring additional revenue to drivers and give them a 
chance to grow their businesses once they see the value of Uber.

ü  Kuala Lumpur has a big traffic problem. Uber believes it can innovate 
transportation everywhere and reduce the number of cars on the road.

ü  Uber is foreigner-friendly. Available in more than 15 different languages (and 
counting), it helps foreign visitors tremendously. Uber has millions of users globally, and when foreigners come to Kuala Lumpur, many of them have already been opening the Uber app in their preferred language to see if there are cars available.

Vehicles on the Uber platform in Kuala Lumpur are exclusively luxury vehicles:

Toyota Camry, Nissan Teana, Mercedes S-Class or E-Class, BMW 7-Series, etc.

Price is based on time and distance traveled for each trip. Some sample fares include (varies based on traffic):

KLCC to Jalan Bukit Bintang        (RM13 - RM15)

KLCC to Bangsar Baru                  (RM29 - RM37)

KLCC to KL Sentral                        (RM26 - RM33)

Subang Jaya to Publika                 (RM64 - RM71)

KL to KLIA                                        (Flat Rate of RM300)

KL to LCCT                                      (Flat Rate of RM300)

I've enjoyed my 2 Uber rides recently. The process is simple, download Uber app from Appstore or Playstore, register my account with Google connect, scan my card(Uber accepts Credit and Debit Card), and locate my nearest driver to pick me up. My first ride was a Toyota Camry, and guess what, my next ride was an Audi A6! Both drivers called me to confirm my ride before they came to pick me up, and they are equally nice.

Yay I can ride in Audi A6 too!

A Cool Chauffeur experience it was~~

All the advance devices they are using. Ohya Audi driver provides their customers with foc drinking water too!

However, I encountered some bug in Uber too. During my second pick up request, another Camry driver accepted my request in Uber App at first, but he has never called up nor picked me up at the pick up point. However, I've been charged RM 13 for the invisible ride! I have emailed Uber Support team for this as well as the other ride which has a wrong fare, but I have not received a reply from them for few days. I wish Uber support will improve their services on this, at least reply the users promptly. Issues resolved! ^ ^

For more detailed fare information, please see http://www.uber.com/cities/kuala-lumpur

Website: www.uber.com

Now, if you are interested to try Uber, do sign up with my promotion code 'ph39u' for RM 60 off your first Uber ride.  ;)  Do it FAST as the promotion code is only valid until Jan 20th 2014 yeah!