Uber landed in Croatia late last year, sparking “pro” and “con” discussions in neighbouring Serbia. The question is: will Uber soon be available in our country? Anthony Le Roux, Uber General Manager for Eastern Europe, explains how the “shared economy” prevailed, when the mobile phone turned from a simple talking-and-texting device to a powerful weapon for kickstarting new business models and disruptive technologies. Uber was launched in San Francisco in 2010 with just a few cars, but it rapidly expanded to various American cities and even Paris, conquering South America in 2013 and the lucrative Indian market that same year. Now it is a global “empire”, covering 67 countries worldwide, including 24 in Europe. Will Serbia follow? Anthony Le Roux certainly hopes so.
It’s hard to imagine that a few years ago a mobile phone was extremely simple and was used just to call and text message people, while now we use it for everything from listening to music, searching folders or ordering an Uber ride through applications. In the beginning, Uber was very simple. You just ordered a ride over the phone and, somehow magically, a vehicle arrived five minutes later. The huge success of Uber arose from this very simple idea.
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