Users are not required to hire taxi services through your platform if they make a reservation at a restaurant or buy a ticket for a show
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Uber Explore. (photo: Grupo Informático)
Uber began as a mobile applicationoffering transportation by private vehicle, then taxis and scooters, until it expanded its operations to meal delivery with Uber Eats, however, it is now making a big leap towards selling tickets for shows and restaurant reservations.
The multinational has announced that it has chosen Madrid, Spain, as the first European city to launch Uber Explore, which so far it has only been available in beta version in 13 cities in the United States and Mexico City.
It is a servicethrough which users can obtain information about leisure and free time activities, book restaurants and buy tickets for concerts, shows and experiences.
Why Madrid has been chosen for this new function
Anabel Díaz, general director of Uber for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, explains that Spain is one of the company’s strategic countries ,and the Spanish capital has become one of the points of reference for the company.
“It is one of the cities that has recovered its demand levels the fastest after the pandemic at the global. In addition, according to our study, arrivals at the Madrid-Barajas airport increased by 55% in June 2021 compared to the same month in 2019, and Madrid has emerged as the preferred destination for tourists from France, the US and United Kingdom,” said Díaz.
Uber Explore. (photo:expansion.com)
Díaz assured that Uber wants to become a reference application for leisure and entertainment and defended that the platform can add a lot of value in these areas because “Uber users not only looking for transportation.”
“30% of the searches that happen in Uber look for places (museums, bars, restaurants, shops, etc), not specific addresses. And we want to answer those questions. We want to expand our services and be the platform that users go to not when they have decided where to go but when they are looking for where to go. We want to give visibility to the leisure and gastronomy offer of each city”, he added.
Restaurant reservations are now available through an agreement with Opentable, a restaurant engine that has more than 60,000 restaurants, bars and fine dining establishments around the world.
This is not the case with the show tickets section. Uber said it has also entered into an alliance with Foursquare to offer location recommendations, and is in talks with other players in the entertainment and restaurant sectors to round out the five categories the service will cover, including :
– Recommendations.
– Restaurant reservations.
– Exclusive discounts.
– Ticket purchase.
– Experiences and activities.
Uber Explore. (photo: Cinco Días)
With the launch of Uber Explore and Uber Travel (not available in Europe), intend to become the reference application for entertainment and travel in the more than 10,000 cities in which they are present today. today.
Finally, Díaz assured that Uber’s intention is to expand Uber Explorer to other Spanish cities, Barcelona and others, but explained that “to do this we must have an enterprise liquidity business to build additional services.
“At Uber we are constantly evolving because we want to become the operating system of people’s daily lives. Our platform is constantly changing, and each day brings new options to users, either to facilitate daily mobility or to help them share the best moments with their friends and loved ones.
That is the idea behind Uber Explore, an option that proposes to enjoy new experiences, discover the hidden treasures of Mexico City and open up a world of possibilities at your fingertips”, said Diana de la Fuente, Director of Operations for Uber in Mexico.
For now, Uber Explore will operate as a pilot program exclusively in Mexico City. Along with Madrid, CDMX is one of the two cities that will have this function outside the United States. With products like these, Mexico consolidates itself as a spearhead in our innovation efforts.