Notice
This article was written based on Uber’s corporate materials, its 2025 Annual Report, its Q2 2026 earnings materials, and major business announcements publicly available as of August 8, 2026. DANA NOTES analysis is also included.
Recommended Reading
- What Kind of Company Is Uber? A Platform Company Connecting Mobility, Delivery, and Freight – Part 1
What This Article Covers
Uber operates a platform centered on Mobility, Delivery, and Freight that connects the movement of people and goods. In Part 1, we looked at how each business operates and generates revenue.
The question we will examine in this article is where the competitive strengths that allow Uber to continue expanding these businesses come from.
Uber’s competitive strengths come from its large network of users and service providers, the technology that connects them, the structure that allows multiple services to operate on a single platform, and its global operating capabilities. More recently, Uber has also been pursuing a strategy of extending this foundation into autonomous driving and new everyday services.
A Large-Scale Network Is the Foundation of Uber’s Competitive Strengths
In a platform business, as sufficient demand and supply come together, the possibility of connecting a user’s request with an appropriate counterpart increases.
Mobility requires passengers who want to travel and drivers, while Delivery requires consumers, merchants, and delivery service providers to participate together.
According to Uber’s 2025 Annual Report, Uber’s network operated in more than 15,000 cities worldwide as of the end of 2025. The company describes its large-scale network, technology, operating capabilities, and product expertise as the foundation of its platform.
The scale of the platform can also be seen in its second-quarter results announced on August 5, 2026. Monthly Active Platform Consumers (MAPCs) reached 208 million, quarterly Trips reached 3.867 billion, and Gross Bookings were approximately $58 billion. MAPCs increased 16% year over year, while Trips increased 18%.
This scale serves as the foundation for the performance of Uber’s current businesses and is also a platform asset that can be used when adding new services.
Uber already operates user accounts, payments, location information, customer support, and service provider networks. When a new service is connected to this structure, Uber can use the platform’s existing users and operating infrastructure together.
Matching, Dispatching, and Pricing Technologies Turn the Network into an Actual Service
A large network becomes a competitive strength when it can quickly connect appropriate demand and supply.
In ride-hailing, for example, simply checking how many drivers are available in a particular area is not sufficient. The platform needs to anticipate where and when travel demand will occur, find and connect available service providers, calculate routes and estimated arrival times, and process pricing and payments.
In its 2025 Annual Report, Uber describes its internally developed Marketplace, Routing, and Payments technologies as major technology foundations.
Its Marketplace technology includes the following functions:
- Demand Prediction — Analyzing where and when demand will occur
- Matching and Dispatching — Connecting demand with available service providers
- Pricing — Determining prices based on market conditions and service conditions
Uber uses these technologies as a common technology foundation for launching new businesses and operating existing ones.
Uber’s Q2 2026 materials also include mapping and payment technologies and internal technology infrastructure within its platform research and development activities.
Uber’s technological competitiveness appears in the platform’s overall ability to turn large-scale demand and supply into actual transactions rather than in a single function.
A Structure That Operates Mobility and Delivery Together
Another competitive strength of Uber is that Mobility and Delivery can share users within the same platform.
A user who has used ride-hailing can use Uber Eats, while a consumer who first encounters Uber through Delivery can also use Mobility.
According to Uber’s 2025 Annual Report, approximately 58% of consumers who used Delivery for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2025 were also new to the Uber platform itself. This means Delivery serves not only as an additional service for existing customers but also as a channel that brings new users onto the platform.
During the same period, consumers who used both Mobility and Delivery generated more than three times the Gross Bookings of consumers who used only one service in countries where both services were available. As of the end of 2025, approximately one in five eligible consumers used both businesses each month.
Uber One is a service that strengthens this cross-platform usage.
In the first quarter of 2026, Uber One membership reached 50 million. Uber stated that transactions generated by Uber One members across Mobility and Delivery accounted for half of the two businesses’ Gross Bookings.
When one customer uses multiple services together, Uber can use the same account, payment system, membership, and app to extend that customer relationship across multiple businesses.
This structure creates a foundation for expanding a customer from a user of a specific service into a customer who uses the broader platform.
Expanding the Range of Services Available Through One App
Uber is connecting the platform it built through Mobility and Delivery to other everyday services.
At GO–GET 2026, announced on April 29, 2026, Uber unveiled a feature that allows users to book hotels through the Uber app in partnership with Expedia Group. Starting in the United States, it outlined plans to provide access to more than 700,000 accommodations worldwide in the future.
At the same event, Uber also introduced One Search, which connects transportation, food, and product searches through a single search bar, and Travel Mode, which connects transportation at a travel destination with food and sightseeing information.
The assets Uber can use as it expands these services include its existing app, user accounts, payments, membership, location-based technology, and customer relationships.
As the range of areas covered by Uber expands, the scope in which the platform built through Mobility and Delivery can be connected to other consumer activities also expands.
Advertising Is an Additional Revenue Source Created by Platform Scale
Uber’s platform includes not only consumers but also restaurants, retailers, and various brands.
Using this structure, Uber is also expanding its advertising business.
According to the 2025 Annual Report, the annual increase in Delivery revenue included a $568 million increase in advertising revenue. Uber operates marketplace-focused advertising and advertising formats across multiple services that use the platform’s data and scale to connect merchants and brands with consumers.
In its 2026 Proxy Statement, Uber stated that the annualized revenue of its advertising business exceeded $2 billion as of the fourth quarter of 2025.
As transactions across Mobility and Delivery increase, Uber can build additional revenue sources such as membership and advertising on top of its core intermediation businesses.
Platform scale is reused as a foundation for creating new revenue sources.
Expanding Its Platform Role in Autonomous Driving
Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are an important area to examine when assessing Uber’s future competitive strengths.
Uber is pursuing a strategy of connecting vehicles from multiple autonomous-driving technology companies and automakers to the Uber platform.
On February 23, 2026, Uber unveiled Uber Autonomous Solutions. This business is structured to provide capabilities that Uber has developed as autonomous-driving companies bring their technologies into actual commercial services.
Uber Autonomous Solutions consists of three main areas:
- Infrastructure
- User Experience
- Fleet Operations
Uber has outlined a direction in which autonomous-driving partners can use capabilities accumulated through its existing platform business, including securing demand, customer support, and actual fleet operations.
Its partnerships are also expanding across multiple regions.
In February 2026, Uber and WeRide announced plans to deploy at least 1,200 Robotaxis in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Riyadh. These vehicles are structured to be accessed through the Uber app, with deployment proceeding in stages depending on regulatory approval and performance conditions.
In March 2026, Uber announced a partnership with Rivian to deploy 10,000 autonomous R2 Robotaxis in the first phase, with an additional option that could expand the deployment to as many as 50,000 vehicles. The first commercial deployment is planned to begin in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, with plans to expand to 25 cities by 2031. Uber’s investment in Rivian is also worth up to $1.25 billion and will proceed in stages subject to autonomous-driving performance targets.
These figures are not the number of vehicles currently in operation. They are plans announced with the goal of future implementation.
In Uber’s autonomous-driving strategy, alongside autonomous-driving technology itself, the platform capability to connect vehicles with actual user demand and operate them as commercial services plays an important role.
The Delivery Hero Acquisition Offer Is a Strategy to Expand the Global Scope of the Platform
Uber’s platform expansion strategy also extends to acquisitions and investments.
On July 16, 2026, Uber announced an acquisition offer for Delivery Hero.
The offer price is €41.50 per share, representing an Equity Value of approximately $14.8 billion. After adjusting for Uber’s existing stake, the amount is approximately $13.7 billion.
Under the announced transaction structure, Uber would acquire Delivery Hero businesses in 50 markets, while SSW Partners would acquire businesses in 14 markets under a separate agreement. If the transaction is completed as planned, Uber’s total business footprint is expected to expand to 99 markets.
In particular, Uber expects the number of markets where it offers both Mobility and Delivery to increase from the current 34 to 58 after the transaction is completed. Uber views this as an opportunity to expand its cross-platform strategy.
As of August 8, 2026, this transaction has not been completed and remains at the stage where the tender offer and related procedures are underway. The actual completion of the transaction and its final business scope will depend on shareholder participation, regulatory approvals, and the satisfaction of other required conditions.
The Delivery Hero acquisition offer shows Uber’s direction of expanding Delivery as a major business that, together with Mobility, forms its global platform.
Conditions Uber Needs to Monitor to Maintain Its Competitive Strengths
As Uber expands its platform competitiveness, several conditions also need to be examined.
1. Continued Participation by Users and Service Providers
Mobility and Delivery have various competing platforms in different regions.
Users can choose services based on price and convenience, while drivers and delivery service providers can also choose platforms based on earnings and working conditions.
In its 2025 Annual Report, Uber also identifies expanding platform demand and supply, increasing activity among existing users, expanding market share, and responding to competitors’ pricing and incentives as conditions for continued growth.
Therefore, to turn platform scale into a long-term competitive strength, Uber needs to maintain both service quality and economic value so that users and service providers continue to choose the platform.
2. Regional Regulations and Platform Operating Costs
Because Uber operates across many countries and cities, it is affected by driver classification, labor-related systems, insurance, transportation regulations, and platform regulations.
Changes in the regulatory environment can also change the costs and operating conditions applied to drivers and delivery service providers.
For Uber, which has a large global business footprint, the ability to operate its platform in accordance with regional systems is itself a competitive condition.
3. The Commercialization Speed of Autonomous-Driving Partners
Uber’s autonomous-driving strategy includes a structure that connects automakers and autonomous-driving technology companies to its platform.
Therefore, vehicle supply, the performance and safety of autonomous-driving technology, regulatory approvals in each region, and actual commercialization schedules are also connected to the pace at which Uber can expand its autonomous-driving business.
Whether the announced large-scale vehicle deployment plans translate into actual operating scale will be an important indicator to monitor.
4. Actual Completion and Integration of the Delivery Hero Transaction
The Delivery Hero acquisition offer is also a variable that could affect the future scale of Uber’s platform.
It will be necessary to monitor whether the transaction is actually completed, whether regulatory approvals are obtained, and whether regional business integration and the expansion of cross-platform services, including Uber One, proceed as planned.
DANA NOTES Commentary
Uber’s competitive strength lies in its ability to bring various forms of demand arising from mobility and consumption onto a single platform and connect that demand with multiple forms of supply.
In this structure, as Uber’s business areas expand, its existing users, payment systems, data, matching technologies, and operating infrastructure can also be used for new services. The scale of the platform is reused as the foundation for further business expansion.
Autonomous driving, in particular, could become an important test of Uber’s competitive strength. Even if the providers of mobility services expand from human drivers to autonomous vehicles, the key question is whether Uber can continue to secure user demand for mobility and connect it with appropriate supply.
Therefore, when assessing Uber’s competitive strength in the future, it will be necessary to look beyond simple user numbers and examine how broadly individual users use different services together and how effectively Uber connects new services and forms of supply to its existing platform.
As of August 8, 2026, Uber is gradually expanding the scope of demand it connects around the movement of people and goods, based on the platform it has built through ride-hailing and delivery.
