Sam Gellman: Head of Asia Expansion, Uber

Online Car Booking Service Uber is recording meteoric expansion in Asia, offering services in around ten Asian cities, such as, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, etc. after securing Series C financing at a valuation of $3.5 billion in late August.

Sam Gellman, head of Uber’s Asia Expansion Division, is on stage at TechCrunch Shanghai to expound their expansion plans in China, a crucial party of Asian market. Uber just landed in Shanghai this August. It is now recruiting in every big Chinese city, planning to land in one Chinese city every three months. In exploring markets in new cities, Uber always hire local operational teams because they are more familiar with the conditions of local market.

The arrival time for cars booked on Uber is within seven minutes in Shanghai in pretty much every time of a day, still longer than less than three minutes in San Francisco and under four minutes in New York. Uber now provides services in 54 cities across 22 countries, Gellman disclosed.

Emma Lee (Li Xin) was TechNode's e-commerce and new retail reporter until June 2022, when she moved to Sixth Tone to cover technology and consumption. Get in touch with her via lixin@sixthtone.com or Twitter.

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7 Comments

  1. I have tried to book a car various times over the past weeks, expected time was at best 28 minutes or so, but mostly there was simply no car. I ended up not yet taking a single trip in Shanghai.
    The statistics of “7 minutes” is flat out incorrect and not true.

    1. Uber landed in Shanghai for just three months, so their service is not able to cover the whole city yet. Most of the cars are distributed in downtown areas of Shanghai like Xujiahui, may be 7 minutes refers to services in these areas. Hope the situation will improve in the future.

    2. Uber landed in Shanghai for just three months, so their service is not able to cover the whole city yet.
      Most of the cars are distributed in downtown areas of Shanghai like Xujiahui, may be 7 minutes refers to services in these areas. Hope the situation will improve in the future

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