My wife (mid-20s) and her friends were going to take one for the first time after I told them about it as they were headed to Chicago for the weekend. They all got scared and took a cab instead because they had never heard of Uber and didn't trust it. Nothing I could say would convince them otherwise, they need to hear about it from other sources to think it's legit.

People just don't know about Uber. They're not recognizable enough (no advertising).

Its bubbled up to the New York Times. Otherwise, if fails my "mom test", so its still a niche service IMO.

What's your "mom test"? My (mid-60s) mother uses Uber, as do some of my middle-aged friends, even if it's far less popular there than it is among my friends in their 20s.

My mom doesn't really know what it is. Mind you, she lives in suburbia and has her own car.

Yeah, as does mine. I agree that it's likely the case that most middle aged mothers living in suburbia aren't too familiar with it.

A trillion dollar niche!

That trillion dollars is forward-looking, and not based on current revenue. It may well end up being a mainstream, household name before too long, but not yet.

When talking about the niche, no need to limit to one company's current run rate. And see gurley for how it's potentially a trillion dollar "niche".

On Facebook I've seen people post about it. These are people who might have a job in tech (e.g. marketing at a tech company) but for the most part don't read Hacker News or tech articles often. Keep in mind there were some late night television shows covering the issue and a few politicians peaking in for review. I think it is an issue with some appeal to those outside of tech, but for the most it doesn't seem to be an issue. I mean NSA spying and privacy issues don't get the masses to delete Facebook accounts or Gmail, so it certainly won't stop Uber.

Outside the tech bubble and the big cities, the viewpoint is generally "What's Uber?" and "What's AirBnb?" I even have had Uber drivers in big cities who had no idea what AirBnb was.