>manage

How do they manage the rides? I thought it was handled by the app?

I'm guessing they deal with a lot of complaints from both riders and drivers. They're usually really responsive to that stuff so probably a lot of staff handling it.

Someone has to write the app and maintain the backend.

Also deal with all the crazy situations that arise from cars driving humans through cities

You should be able to do both with far fewer than 12,000 people. I suspect that the bulk of those people are doing something else.

Well, no one's stopping you from starting a competitor. Since you can do it with far fewer people, you should be profitable in no time. Good luck!

I never said Uber didn't have that many people. I said that all those people aren't writing the app and maintaining the backend.

Could I do it with fewer people? Maybe, maybe not. Could I do it with fewer than 12,000 people writing the app and maintaining the backend? Absolutely.

I don't think the poster was implying that they don't do anything, just that they are working on something the public doesn't know about.

If he started as a competitor, he would likely did out that he needs a lot of people on non programming positions.

Also, even if you managed to do similar with less people, it still would not be enough unless he would also be willing to break the law as uber is known for.

It surprises me that you think the tech aspect of Uber is the biggest. It's not; the biggest aspect of Uber is operations. For every city you have onboard, you need significant people on the ground that work on driver recruitment, dealing with local gov, training, driver support, local marketing. Some markets have their own apps (like Australia with its on driver-to-driver interim chat feature).

> You should be able to do both with far fewer than 12,000 people.

You're absolutely right. You could probably run Uber with a tenth of that headcount.

The thing is, at a lot of companies - and I'm guessing Uber is the same - there's no incentive to have a small team. In fact, managers are incentivized to have a bigger team. Having more reports, and more levels of management, under you is a status symbol. Plus, people use it to justify taking on bigger roles and more responsibility - "better to give the promotion to the person who already has experience managing a 300 person team and already has experience managing managers who manage managers than the person who's been making do with 10 direct reports."

So a lot more people end up getting hired than perhaps are really strictly necessary. It's a dynamic that probably most high-growth companies fall into at some point. You have to really consciously make an effort to stay lean if you want to.

Of course, what's wrong with having a little fat in the workforce as long as you have plenty of cash in the bank and can still operate effectively? Even if the hiring is driven in part by execs jockeying for position it's still spreading some of Uber's cash out to a broader swath of people. From a societal standpoint it's arguably better for Uber to employ 12,000 than 1,200 people.

No, you couldn't. Uber is a global company with operations in almost 100 countries, and in several hundred cities. Each city has their own team of employees running the business.