Uber expanded beyond car hailing by announcing on Monday that it will officially launch a new product, UberLIFE. This personalized city guide will first launch in Chinese cities including Hangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu and will expand to other cities later this year.
UberLIFE is an innovative localized product that’s tailor-made for the Chinese market. Riders can access UberLIFE through the sidebar of the Uber app. Different choices are available under this column, from interesting activities to eateries and restaurant recommendations. In the near future, more options will be added: live theater, theme parties and sports events, to name a few. UberLIFE will also provide more coupons to its users by cooperating with merchants, restaurants, etc.
“There is an interesting finding when we analyze the behavior of our users through their travel records – Chinese users would often open the app after their rides start, although there is no more than a map and their route on the app, ” said UberLIFE’s director, Wang Qingyun. That’s how they decided to build a city lifestyle guide within the app.
Uber will benefit from big data collected from users’ car hailing histories. In this case, it can help the company better provide value-added services to its users. After years of data accumulation, Uber knows which are the most-visited places in a city, and it has a lot of real-time data, which helps UberLIFE give recommendations to users. Furthermore, Uber can analyze the behavior of a frequent Uber user through his/her travel history to give users more personalized recommendations.
Uber China now provides services in more than 40 Chinese cities. China is its largest market outside of the United States.
(Top photo from Chihe.sohu.com)
