According to sources Uber Technologies Inc. and its bankers will hit the road this month with one big name on their lips as they try to entice investors with favorable comparisons to businesses that it seeks to imitate or surpass. That name is Amazon.com Inc. Amazon was a money-losing internet bookseller attacking the brick-and-mortar fortress of Barnes & Noble Inc. at the dawn of e-commerce when it raised $54 million in its 1997 initial public offering.
Uber wants to convince investors that it’s a transportation and logistics market-maker that can build and then supply new demand for everything from scooters and bicycles to freight and food delivery, said people familiar with its plans who asked not to be identified because they’re private. The investor pitch will dwell on the unrealized opportunity ahead, with Uber casting itself as a nascent transportation provider just barely scratching the surface of a multi-trillion-dollar market, according to the people.
While Uber may have a 65 percent share of the ride-hailing market in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the company said in its IPO filing Thursday that its share of the entire global transportation market is less than 1 percent.
