The world-renowned car-hailing service company, Uber has hinted that the company will establish a corporate advertising division “Uber Journey Ads” that would allow businesses to connect with customers throughout their ride experience.
Investors King understands that Uber is planning on expanding its revenue generation by leveraging on its 122 million global active users that make 2 billion trips per quarter.
Upon commencement of the Uber Journey Ads, Uber will be competing with Netflix, Disney, and Amazon which had earlier jumped on paid ads. The company will also be competing with Google and Apple Incorporated, both of which are age-long players in the global digital advert industry.
However, Uber Journey Ads will be powered by the data at the disposal of the company. The yet-to-be-launched Uber Journal Ads could exploit unique insights on customer lifetime travel behaviours and trip-specific destinations to its advantage.
For instance, with the exploitation of customer lifetime travel behaviour, Uber can easily identify a user who spends quality time going for cloth shopping and therefore displays ads to suit that specific purpose.
Moreover, this could reduce unwanted creepy ads when compared with other players in the industry because Uber knows who you are and where you’re going.
As it is with Netflix ads, Uber’s new ad business chief, Mark Grether, claims that the addition of ads would ultimately make rides cheaper for consumers. However, he declined to say how much obviously because of the conflict such statement could generate.
Experts have argued that Uber used the notion of supply and demand to determine its price. They wonder how the company will bring down its charges while using the force of supply and demand.
Additionally, it would be unfair to customers who after paying for premium service are likely to be constantly bombarded with unsolicited ads.
In 2021, Uber started testing its display ads in its ride-hailing application. According to the company’s ad chief executive, Mark Grether, the goal of the company is to grow its advertisement business into a “$1 billion-plus revenue opportunity by 2024.”
