Uber is reworking its playbook for world domination

SAN FRANCISCO: Sitting in his glass-walled office in Berlin with an open suit jacket, casually tieless, Christoph Weigler looks every bit the part of a Silicon Valley startup executive. But the Uber general manager for Germany isn’t talking about dominance or disruption. Weigler instead prefers discussing rules and regulations: “Companies in general need to abide by them.” As for Uber’s famously brash tactics, he said, “It was very obvious that was not the way we could succeed here.” As the ride-hailing giant prepares for an IPO next year, Uber is gearing up to tell investors that much of its growth will come from food delivery, selfdriving cars and scooters. Uber Technologies Inc’s core business of moving passengers in people’s cars has largely plateaued. In most major markets around the world, it has either won or retreated.

But thanks to a more diplomatic approach pioneered by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, there are a few markets that hold newly tantalising possibilities.

Three countries in particular now appear to make up a kind of final frontier for the company’s original business. The first is Germany, where Uber’s peer-topeer service has been banned for three years. By embracing regulated black cars and taxis, Uber has recently begun to thrive in Munich and Berlin, made its way back into Düsseldorf and is planning to add more next year.


On Monday, the country’s Transportation Ministry said it’s considering easing regulations to allow carpooling by 2021. Another untapped market is Japan, where ride-hailing companies have failed to make a dent in the taxi market. And the third is Argentina, currently in the grips of an economic crisis, and where regulations no longer mean as much as they once did.