Re:Data on Uber Usage in the U.S.
by JoshTriplett on Tuesday August 04, 2015 @07:15PM
(#10006945)
One thing that struck me as odd from the data: bookings are growing just below customers, on the same scale, which seems inconsistent with only ~30+% of customers riding only once per month. The only obvious way I can think of for that to happen is if there are many customers who ride less than once a month, which would actually make sense; I use Uber a few times a year, when I travel, but I don't use it locally. So, it seems like the "Domestic Customers by Monthly Rides" graph needs to have a "0" included in it (and then a second graph without it if that squashes the rest of the graph).
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Thanks for the comment! It'd definitely be interesting to see this same analysis for annual rides to see how many people fall into a similar category as you.
To quickly clarify: The growth chart only includes customers who paid for an Uber ride in that month, so any customers riding 0 times are not counted. The "Domestic Customers by Monthly Rides" graph simply takes that set of customers and breaks them down by # of rides in that month.
Bookings can grow more slowly than customers if customers are spending less on average. This is in fact the case - in July 2012, customers were spending ~$85 a month on Uber. This has dropped steadily over the last three years to ~$70 a month. This makes sense given that Uber has lowered its average price over the years, with the introduction of UberX and UberPool.