Uber's Ride Credit Referral Engine

Uber's double-sided ride credit referral program ($20 for referrer and referee) was one of the most capital-intensive growth engines ever built, subsidizing riders into trying a new transportation paradigm.

Challenge

In 2012-2015, Uber needed to convince people to get into a stranger's car — a fundamental behavior change. The product was only valuable with sufficient driver supply, and drivers only signed up where rider demand existed. Each new city required bootstrapping both sides of a marketplace from zero.

Approach

Uber's referral program gave both the existing rider and the new rider a credit (typically $10-20). The credit covered the full cost of a first ride, eliminating the financial risk of trying something new. The referral code was shareable via text, social media, or in-person, and the credit was applied instantly. Uber invested billions in rider and driver incentives during its growth phase. The referral program was city-specific (different amounts in different markets) and aggressively A/B tested. Combined with driver referral bonuses, Uber created a dual-sided acquisition engine that scaled across 60+ countries.

Results

• Riders globally (2018): 100M+
• Cities (2019): 700+
• Countries: 63
• IPO valuation (2019): $82B

Sources

• Uber S-1 Filing (2019)
• Uber investor presentations
• Travis Kalanick interviews (various)

The full record sits in the studio register.