Uber also wants to be a bank and launches Money. What are we talking about

Also Uber has decided to focus on financial services: the San Francisco company has launched Uber Money. The company joins the queue of those who have already launched accounts and credit cards. However, in the case of Uber, the goal is not to intercept a new flow of revenue. Uber Money includes a range of services. In part they are new, others already existed but will be enhanced. The company introduces in the app a real-time system with which drivers and messengers can cash out, monitor and manage what they earn immediately.

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"We want to help everyone understand that there is a new part of Uber focused on financial services, with the mission to offer that access to those services from which they are excluded "said the head of the division Peter Hazlehurst in an interview with CNBC (the first newspaper to report that Uber was accelerating in the process of creating financial services, given the hiring of engineers for a "Fintech department in New York"). With what objective? "Give people access to services they are excluded from". In short, driving for Uber would mean having a current account that drivers could not otherwise afford, especially in financially less mature markets.

According to the number one of the new financial division the move of Uber in the future it could also lead to the provision of a real bank account:

The reality is that the needs of our partners in the United States and in Brazil, in Australia and in India in many ways reflect the general needs of all financial services users. The opportunity we have is to expand until we can get a large number of people to have access to financial services

READ ALSO: After transport and food, Uber also wants to deal with temporary work

Financial ecosystem

Uber bets that by creating its own financial ecosystem it will be able to strengthen the loyalty of drivers and customers to its platform. Uber last year had 100 million active customers every month, many of whom use credit cards for their runs or for lunch and dinner orders. Uber Money could remove the costs related to financial intermediation or generate new revenues.

drivers

Today the drivers have to wait a week before having their own collection available. They can get it right away, provided you have an account and a Uber debit card, supported by Visa and Green Dot partners. There are no fixed costs but two new features are introduced.

App and cashback

Account management will be integrated into the app and it will be easier for drivers to keep an eye on everything. Second: if the card is used, there is a cashback (a refund) on fuel costs between 3 and 6%. It depends on the position occupied by the drivers in the Uber hierarchy. In essence: the more you work, the greater the reimbursement. Without the need to have a second current account. So far, the services are aimed only at drivers. And only (for now) in the United States.

Uber Wallet and credit card

Two other products also involve customers. Uber Wallet is a new digital wallet, integrated into the app, with which to monitor receipts (in the case of drivers) and expenses (of the same drivers but also of users). At the beginning, Wallet will be available only for the company's collaborators, but will also arrive on Uber Eats (for bellboys and those who order at home) and Uber (for those who book a car ride). The fourth product is a credit card, in collaboration with Barclays. Those who use it receive a 5% cashback on the amounts spent on Uber, Uber Eats, Jump (the brand of shared electric bikes and scooters) and Copter (the service with which you book flights from Manhattan to JFK airport).

First the drivers

At first attention will therefore focus on drivers. Having the immediate availability of your collections and a discount on fuel is one of the many bonuses that the company has adopted in recent months. The management of the business, without third-party bank fees, reduces management costs and increases driver margins. And it discourages the use of cash. "Time is money," says the launch video for Uber Money. In this way the drivers recover precious minutes for new rides. And as a result, the company also earns more. The goal is therefore to improve the working conditions, also to lighten the pressures that push to the classification as employees.

The numbers

Individual services are not revolutionary. But their impact cannot be assessed without taking into account the Uber scale. Even limiting the services to drivers only, there is talk of about 4 million people. There are more than 110 million users and the "gross booking" (ie how much money passes through the app) has exceeded 30 billion dollars in the first six months of 2019.

Ecosystem

In the future, by expanding services to users, Uber could aim to become one super-app, based on the WeChat model, and generate additional sales. This is the tendency: to be aapp-ecosystem where services, products, payments, communication and mobility coexist. Almost all the big groups are trying. And almost everyone goes through financial services. In addition to the various "Pay" of Google, Samsung, Amazon and Apple, the Apple has launched its credit card and Bezos offers loans to companies that sell on the e-commerce platform. The "crypto" are a different way to reach the same goal: to do everything within one's own ecosystem. Play, chat, inquire, buy, pay. The project of Gram (the Telegram coin) went in this direction. And Libra is also heading in this direction, the digital currency promoted by Facebook.