On March 1, 2022, Uber launched Uber Explore, an in-app feature that adds a new dimension to the rideshare experience. Uber users can receive personalized recommendations for restaurants, live events and entertainment venues and then book and pay for those experiences directly from their Uber account.[1] On March 9, Uber Eats announced that users can make group orders and split the check.[2]
Uber’s gambit to expand and monetize its ridesharing platform is the latest example of how digital platforms are aggregating and monetizing the natural synergies between once separate but related online activities. Uber Explore is just the latest example of what PYMNTS calls the ConnectedEconomyTM — a framework for defining and measuring the digital transformation of the global economy over time.
This framework organizes a consumer’s daily routine into 10 categories — we call them “pillars” — and the 40 activities they perform to complete them. How people all over the world use connected devices, payments and new technologies to work, live, bank, pay and be paid, have fun, shop, eat, stay healthy, connect with others and move from point A to point B will determine the depth, breadth and speed of the world’s digital transformation.
Innovators use a combination of technology, payments and connected devices to simplify how people and businesses engage within each of these 10 pillars and, more importantly, consolidate multiple activities across separate pillars into one. Together, this becomes the blueprint for the digital transformation of the connected economy.
The Uber Explore experience connects three of the ConnectedEconomy’s 10 pillars: have fun (tickets for events), eat (restaurant reservations) and move (getting from point A to B). Uber’s hypothesis is that consumers will start their search for what to do and where to go inside an ecosystem that can also get them to and from their desired destination.
[1] New Uber Explore Feature Marks Trend in Monetizing Rideshare by Adding Value for Users. PYMNTS.com. 2022. https://www.pymnts.com/mobile-applications/2022/new-uber-explore-feature-marks-trend-monetizing-rideshare-adding-value-users/. Accessed April 2022.
[2] Uber Unveils Bill Splitting, Other Group Dining Features. PYMNTS.com. 2022. https://www.pymnts.com/news/delivery/2022/uber-unveils-bill-splitting-other-group-dining-features/. Accessed April 2022