It's a rite of passage for so many tech companies: building their first wildly ambitious, kind of ridiculous, and generally stunning headquarters to accommodate a ballooning headcount as growth explodes. Uber is the latest to start working on a new HQ, and design mockups for the building were released this week.
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The ride-hailing company, which launched in 2009 and now operates in more than 200 cities across 55 countries, revealed plans for the plush new office space this week. The two-building complex, which’ll be linked by three glass walkways, should be open for business by early 2018.
Uber is planning a towering, two-building campus in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood with 423,000 square feet of office space — enough to fit over 3,000 people,reports SFGate. From the outside, the buildings look like glass warehouses: they're almost entirely transparent aside from a series of steel beams outlining their edges. The two buildings, one rising up 11 stories and the other six stories, are connected by three slanted bridges, also almost entirely covered in glass.
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Though it's transparent from the outside, Uber plans to have a bit more going on inside. Rather than having an open office, it's decided to set up a series of small groups of workstations and shared spaces, according to Dezeen. The architects also plan to integrate shops in the ground level of both buildings, which is important for keeping the area vibrant.
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Uber hopes to open the offices in late 2017 or early 2018, according to SFGate. Construction reportedly begins this fall.
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All images credit Shop Architects.
COMMENTARY: For those of you not familiar with Uber, here are a few facts.
Revenues
In November 2014, unnamed sources told Business Insider's Henry Bodget that mobile ride hailing startup Uber is expected to hit an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion by the end of 2015.
Uber keeps 20% of every transaction, which means Uber will be netting about $2 billion on $10 billion gross revenue.
What's more, most of Uber's revenue comes from 10 of its earliest cities, including San Francisco and New York. When its other 140+ cities mature, you can imagine that $10 billion revenue figure multiplying quickly. San Francisco alone generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Uber. Uber is operating in more than 45 countries without having made a single acquisition.
That's not to say the company is profitable. It spends tons of money on marketing tactics to recruit new users and drivers. Still, those figures for a five-year-old startup are staggering.
To put that in perspective, Facebook is expected to generate $10 billion for the first time this year, after 10 years of operation. Granted, Uber and Facebook are entirely different businesses (advertising versus transactional) but yah, $10 billion is a lot.
Blodget also learned that Uber's revenue will grow about 300% this year and it's expected to grow another 300% next year. A snapshot of Uber's financials obtained by Valleywag in late 2013 showed Uber generating about $20 million per week.
Further, Blodget's sources believe Uber will go public in a few years at a $50-100 billion valuation. Uber's last valuation exceeded $18 billion.
In conclusion, Uber management obviously believes that it has a very viable business model that is disrupting the taxi industry, creating jobs for thousands, and prospects for growth are very rosey. Hence, the need for a new corpoate headquarters. However, there is considerable controversey on whether Uber drivers are really earning a good living, or are they merely pawns for Uber to make money off their efforts.
What Uber Drives Earn
Ridesharing companies promise easy money, but how often do you have to drive to pay for car ownership costs, such as insurance? For the more ambitious, how can you make $50,000, $75,000 or even $100,000?
To find out, NerdWallet crunched the numbers to see how many rides drivers for Uber, Lyft and Sidecar would have to provide to pay for their car ownership costs such as insurance, gas and repairs. We also calculated how many rides are required for drivers to make $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000 in gross income. Using data from SherpaShare, a service that helps drivers track ridesharing income and expenses, NerdWallet analyzed 14 of the country’s largest markets for Uber, Lyft and Sidecar.
Key findings
- On average, drivers make more per trip driving for Uber than they do with Lyft or Sidecar. The average fare for Uber is $15.97; average fares for Lyft and Sidecar are $11.48 and $13.35, respectively.
- To make an annual income of $50,000, the average Uber driver needs to provide 60.21 rides each week, while those working for Lyft need to give 83.76 rides a week and Sidecar drivers would have to provide 72.03 rides in a week.
- Lyft drivers in Dallas make the least, $9.73, per trip. Based on the city’s average annual insurance premium of $1,042.30, a driver would have to provide 97.65 rides before paying for a car insurance premium.
How much will you make?
Based on the data, Uber drivers make more with each fare than with Lyft or Sidecar. Uber drivers earned eight of the 10 highest average trip fares in the markets we surveyed.
On average, Lyft drivers make less than Uber drivers, $11.48 compared with $15.97; and average trip lengths are relatively similar, 10.2 minutes per trip for Uber compared with 13.6 minutes for a Lyft trip.
But Sidecar seems to cater to a different market. The average Sidecar ride is 22.9 minutes, which is more than twice as long as the average Uber ride. According to SherpaShare, the longer fares can be attributed to Sidecar’s marketplace feature that lets drivers set their own prices. When drivers do their own commutes, they often lower the fare below market rates to pick up passengers going their way.
How can you make $50,000?
In short, it depends on where and when you drive. For example, “driver utilization” for New York City’s yellow cabs is about 50%, which means that for each hour drivers work, they are ferrying passengers 50% of the time. SherpaShare’s per trip fare data for Uber shows that the average driver would have to drive 20.47 hours each week to make $50,000 a year. However, from anecdotal evidence and investigative reports, it is likely that the average driver utilization for ridesharing is much less than 50%.
Number of trips needed to make $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000
| Market | Average annual insurance premium | Annual car ownership costs for a 2014 Toyota Camry | Ridesharing platform | Average trip fare | Number of trips needed each week to pay for car insurance | Number of trips needed each week to pay for car ownership costs | Number of trips needed each week to make $50,000 | Number of trips needed each week to make $75,000 | Number of trips needed each week to make $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston | $1,174.50 | $11,421.48 | Uber | $16.07 | 1.41 | 5.93 | 59.83 | 89.75 | 119.67 |
| Lyft | $11.22 | 2.01 | 8.49 | 85.70 | 128.55 | 171.40 | |||
| Sidecar | $12.39 | 1.82 | 7.69 | 77.61 | 116.41 | 155.21 | |||
| Charlotte | $815.00 | $11,166.87 | Uber | $11.85 | 1.32 | 7.59 | 81.14 | 121.71 | 162.28 |
| Lyft | $11.49 | 1.36 | 7.83 | 83.68 | 125.53 | 167.37 | |||
| Sidecar | $19.66 | 0.80 | 4.57 | 48.91 | 73.36 | 97.82 | |||
| Chicago | $1,243.52 | $11,981.90 | Uber | $12.73 | 1.88 | 8.23 | 75.53 | 113.30 | 151.07 |
| Lyft | $10.50 | 2.28 | 9.97 | 91.58 | 137.36 | 183.15 | |||
| Sidecar | $15.36 | 1.56 | 6.82 | 62.60 | 93.90 | 125.20 | |||
| Dallas | $1,157.10 | $11,653.66 | Uber | $12.66 | 1.76 | 7.99 | 75.95 | 113.93 | 151.90 |
| Lyft | $9.73 | 2.29 | 10.40 | 98.82 | 148.23 | 197.64 | |||
| Denver | $1,042.30 | $11,545.78 | Uber | $12.94 | 1.55 | 7.41 | 74.31 | 111.46 | 148.61 |
| Lyft | $10.36 | 1.93 | 9.25 | 92.81 | 139.22 | 185.63 | |||
| Detroit | $4,924.99 | $15,608.04 | Uber | $16.13 | 5.87 | 10.64 | 59.61 | 89.42 | 119.22 |
| Lyft | $13.03 | 7.27 | 13.17 | 73.79 | 110.69 | 147.59 | |||
| Los Angeles | $1,175.61 | $11,890.59 | Uber | $14.25 | 1.59 | 7.40 | 67.48 | 101.21 | 134.95 |
| Lyft | $11.59 | 1.95 | 9.09 | 82.96 | 124.44 | 165.93 | |||
| Sidecar | $14.14 | 1.60 | 7.45 | 68.00 | 102.00 | 136.00 | |||
| Orange County | $988.94 | $12,092.12 | Uber | $16.07 | 1.18 | 6.86 | 59.83 | 89.75 | 119.67 |
| Lyft | $12.03 | 1.58 | 9.16 | 79.93 | 119.89 | 159.86 | |||
| Sidecar | $15.60 | 1.22 | 7.06 | 61.64 | 92.46 | 123.27 | |||
| Phoenix | $1,029.49 | $11,854.45 | Uber | $16.31 | 1.21 | 6.24 | 58.95 | 88.43 | 117.91 |
| Lyft | $12.33 | 1.61 | 8.25 | 77.98 | 116.98 | 155.97 | |||
| Salt Lake City | $772.23 | $11,372.23 | Uber | $15.07 | 0.99 | 5.96 | 63.80 | 95.71 | 127.61 |
| Lyft | $9.92 | 1.50 | 9.05 | 96.93 | 145.39 | 193.86 | |||
| San Diego | $818.08 | $11,696.58 | Uber | $15.51 | 1.01 | 6.48 | 61.99 | 92.99 | 123.99 |
| Lyft | $11.40 | 1.38 | 8.82 | 84.35 | 126.52 | 168.69 | |||
| Sidecar | $15.58 | 1.01 | 6.45 | 61.72 | 92.57 | 123.43 | |||
| San Francisco | $1,013.90 | $11,838.03 | Uber | $19.84 | 0.98 | 5.16 | 48.46 | 72.70 | 96.93 |
| Lyft | $11.92 | 1.64 | 8.58 | 80.67 | 121.00 | 161.33 | |||
| Sidecar | $12.63 | 1.54 | 8.10 | 76.13 | 114.20 | 152.26 | |||
| Seattle | $1,016.86 | $11,822.71 | Uber | $16.59 | 1.18 | 6.15 | 57.96 | 86.94 | 115.92 |
| Lyft | $10.64 | 1.84 | 9.58 | 90.37 | 135.56 | 180.74 | |||
| Sidecar | $14.91 | 1.31 | 6.84 | 64.49 | 96.73 | 128.98 | |||
| Washington, D.C. | $1,390.88 | $11,490.15 | Uber | $14.23 | 1.88 | 6.72 | 67.57 | 101.36 | 135.14 |
| Lyft | $12.31 | 2.17 | 7.77 | 78.11 | 117.17 | 156.22 | |||
| Sidecar | $12.69 | 2.11 | 7.54 | 75.77 | 113.66 | 151.54 | |||
| National average | $1,099.71 | $11,772.68 | Uber | $15.97 | 1.32 | 6.11 | 60.21 | 90.31 | 120.42 |
| Lyft | $11.48 | 1.84 | 8.51 | 83.76 | 125.64 | 167.52 | |||
| Sidecar | $13.35 | 1.58 | 7.31 | 72.03 | 108.04 | 144.05 |
Courtesy of an article dated May 29, 2015 appearing in The Verge, an article dated November 15, 2014 appearing in Business Insider, and an article dated December 11, 2014 appearing in NerdWallet
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