Uber is an American international company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops, markets and operates the mobile-app-based transportation network also called Uber. The Uber app allows consumers to submit a trip request, which is routed to crowd-sourced taxi drivers. As of December 16, 2014, the service was available in 53 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide. Since Uber’s launch, several other companies have emulated its business model, a trend that has come to be referred to as “Uberification”. Uber was founded as “UberCab” by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp in 2009 and the app was released the following June. It raised $49 million in venture funds by 2011. Beginning in 2012, Uber expanded internationally. In 2014, it experimented with carpooling features and made other updates. It continuously raised additional funding, reaching $2.8 billion in total funding by 2015. Many governments and taxi companies have protested Uber, alleging that its use of un-licensed, crowd-sourced drivers was unsafe or illegal.
