It took Uber six years to complete a billion rides around Christmas 2015. Now, just six months later, the company has announced that they have completed their two-billionth ride.
Six months is 180 days, meaning the company was providing an average of 5.5 million rides a day, or 230,000 an hour to hit a billion rides in six months.
Even crazier – instead of one person completing the lucky trip that pushes the company past the two billion mark, there were 147 rides that all tied for the being the two-billionth trip.
All 147 rides literally started their trip the exact same second – at 4:16 AM GMT on Saturday, June 18. Even cooler – these 147 trips simultaneously started in 16 different countries on five continents.
As their reward for hitting the milestone, all 147 riders and drivers will receive $450 – since Uber is now in 450 cities around the world. This pales in comparison to the year of free rides (up to £10,000) gifted to the rider who hit one billion rides for the company, but it’s understandable that the prize was decreased considering there are now 147 winners.
Travis Kalanick, co-founder and CEO of Uber, took to onFacebook to celebrate the milestone with the video below, which is a cool time-lapse of the company reaching 2 billon rides.
This exponential growth could mean that Uber hits 3 billion rides in even less than six months, especially with the proliferation of commuters using using UberPOOL on a daily basis, especially in large cities like NYC.
