Uber's global reach grows as the company's ridesharing comes to Tokyo
It took six years, but Uber is finally hitting the road in Tokyo.
The company kicked off rideshare operations in Japan's capital city on Friday, according to a report from Bloomberg. Thanks to a partnership with three local taxi services, Tokyo riders can summon one of the 600 cars plugged into the app.
Uber may face an uphill battle in building a customer base in the Japanese city. As Bloomberg notes, Tokyo is one of the biggest taxi markets in the world, but the vast majority of those cabs are hailed on the street.
Then again, that's how New York City always operated until Uber came along. The app's arrival in Manhattan offered a solution to the problem of scarce cab availability during the rush hour periods of the day. Some Tokyo residents may also see the appeal of using a service like Uber with its mandated safety policies in the midst of a pandemic – assuming those safety policies even apply to cars that fly the Uber banner through their employer's partnership with the San Francisco-based company.
The brand had some presence in the city already, prior to Friday. While ridesharing is new, UberEats has been operating in Tokyo since late 2016.
The big obstacle to Uber's ridesharing arrival in Tokyo was the city itself. The whole premise of the service, in which a private individual turns their care into an on-demand taxi, is against the law in Japan. That's why UberEats came first.
Uber only started servicing other cities in Japan after striking deals with local car services, as it has now done in Tokyo. So instead of rideshare offering riders an alternative to cab companies, Uber's app simply becomes another place to connect with those cabs in Japan.
Topics Uber
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
