By
Temitope Olatunji
March 11th, 2024
One of Uber executives has revealed that the company plans to increase its investments into bikes and scooters next year.
Uber wants to increase its investments in the micro-mobility industry, especially in Europe. Apparently they believe that the demand for this kind of service will only increase.
“We want to double down on micro-mobility. We have seen how beautifully it works with our core business and ride-sharing, and want to invest more and deeper, especially in Europe,” commented Christian Freese, the head of EMEA at Jump.
In 2018, Uber bought Jump – a bike-sharing service based in the U.S. Ever since then they have rolled out the company’s services internationally, but mostly in European cities.
Why in Europe? Uber claims that Europe has significantly outpaced the U.S. in the last eight months. The company says that, in the previously mentioned time frame alone, more than 500 000 Europeans rode the vehicles. Altogether taking approximately 5 million trips.
According to the company, its services are most popular in Paris, Sacramento, and Seattle.
However, getting into the European markets might not be as easy as it might seem. European country officials are still uneasy about the future of this alternative for “getting around” the city. Mostly it’s because of the different city infrastructure these services ask for. Uber’s main target in Europe is London, but e-scooters are illegal in Britain. Also, France recently introduced tougher ruler for e-scooters.
While the grounds are not quite clear about e-scooters, Uber still is convinced to push more its presence with its e-bike service in already existing markets, well, like London. The company launched the e-bikes earlier this year.
Uber plans to launch in the London borough of Hackney next year following initial rollouts in Islington and Camden.
Additionally, while the rules on micro-mobility in London are pretty tough, it doesn’t stop there for Uber. The company’s future is looking rather uncertain following a decision by the local transport authority about the issue of not renewing Uber’s operator license.
The good thing is that Uber can still operate their services while this process is ongoing.
However, Uber is working very closely with authorities in the U.K. and elsewhere about how to pilot their services. Also, they are paying much attention to the safety issues that come along with this issue.
“When we are thinking about bringing a product to a market, especially a product like scooters, we are working very closely with local officials,” explained Freese.
This year Uber finally went public which was the most anticipated IPO since 2014. But unfortunately, its stock price has only decreased ever since. It started the year with a price of $41.50 and during summer it could sustain it. But since August the price of the stock has managed to drastically decrease. Mainly it is because its revenue wasn’t quite what the market was expecting. Currently, the price of Uber stock sits at $28.49 and Uber eases its investors with claims that it will become profitable in 2021.