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My brother drives occasionally for Uber in Los Angeles. He likes it for the following reasons:
Flexible schedule. He can decide when he wants to work, just by turning on his Uber-supplied phone. He generally works on short-distance fares; transporting people to and from clubs and private parties in Hollywood, and for just a few hours at a time. Or, if he's going somewhere anyway, like the airport, he'll try to get a fare out of it. Drivers can accept or reject any fare they want.
Bonus. He got something like $250 after completing 10 rides; though I am not sure if they offer this perk in every market.
Fun. He's an extrovert who likes meeting new people, and he meets a lot as an Uber driver. He says that a few have invited him to come meet him out later, and that "could have gotten laid" at least once as a result of an Uber connection. (He didn't accept, but he did say that if he were single, this would be a huge perk.)
A reliably worry-free experience. Uber requires a user have a credit card, a smartphone and a degree of tech-savviness. My brother says these criteria tend to weed out a certain class of people; not just anyone is going to use it, even though it's cheaper. And you can see rider ratings, too; easy enough to turn down a fare.
Extra money. It's probably not a great primary source of income, but Uber can help a driver earn extra pocket money if they have the free time and resources. Tipping isn't required, but he said about 30 percent of rides throw him a few bucks anyway.

Here's what he doesn't like about it, and is why he doesn't drive much for them anymore.
Lowered fares. When he first started, he got a certain rate, but Uber reduced it after awhile. Less money per ride means less reason to want to work.
High standards for the car. He told me that in his last inspection, a couple of his tires didn't pass minimum Uber standards, even though they still had quite a few miles on them and were otherwise safe. He didn't want to get new tires right away, so he stopped driving for awhile.
Reduction in referral bonuses. He used to get a certain amount for every driver he recruited, but these went away as well. Another disincentive; like I said, he's a social guy and was a good source of referrals, but lowering referral compensation made it less likely for him to talk it up, and less engaged with the company overall.

From his experience alone, I think Uber is good for a certain type of driver -- someone with a newish, well-maintained car that likes meeting and driving around strangers and doesn't really count on it to provide a real or steady income.

So I went to help my girlfriend many years ago to buy a car at a Toyota dealership. We walked in and immediately told them we were only looking and NOT planning to buy a car that night, as we’d just happened to drive by and weren’t even sure if she wanted a new car yet or not. The guy we talked to said he understood.

We were soon to realize we had unwittingly come across the car salesman from hell.

Now in fairness, many car salespeople get a bad rap. It’s typically the finance guy who screws you in a dealership these days, by burying a bunch of stuff you didn’t really want in the 70 pages of paperwork.

But not this time.

So the first thing he does is ask us what car we are interested in and offer us a test drive. He was a younger guy, probably mid-to-late 20’s, and had a slick, fast-talking way about him.

Not sure of what to look for, my girlfriend asks me to take the wheel and give her my impressions. While out on the test-drive, he starts talking about how drunk he got the night before and moves onto how, “hot” my girlfriend is. He ask’s how long we’ve been dating. I tell him that we’re really just here to test the car and he mutters something about, “Hey, I’ll call the shot’s here.”

He proceeds to tell me I’m not driving the car fast enough. He asks if I’m scared of it. “Um, no—I just don’t want to get a ticket is all, and she’s not going to be driving that fast, either.” He insinuates I am less than manly by driving just a few miles an hour over the speed limit and then say’s, “Pull over and I’ll take us back to the lot.” I do. We still regret it.

He gets in and immediately floors the car and has us doing about 90 on suburban streets behind the dealership. “This is what this car can DO!” he yells. My girlfriend and I are yelling for him to slow down and he starts laughing. He does, and we drive back to the dealership.

By now, I’m pretty mad, and he knows it. He’s no longer even trying to win me over, and has become openly hostile towards me. He then asks for her car keys to evaluate her trade. We remind him we’re not buying that night. He tells us, “No problem, at least you’ll know what you get in return.”

Now get this—before he even asks how much she owes on the car, he asks if we’re familiar with the term, “Being upside down on your trade” means. Again, he doesn’t even know how much she owes on the car, but is already telling her she’ll owe more than its worth and likely get nothing for her trade.

We go back to the sales office and he starts asking what options we’ll want included. I again remind him that we were just looking, and that we will definitely not be buying a car that night. He responds to my GF, “Little lady, who’s buying the car tonight, you or bossy boyfriend over her? Do we even really need him here for this?” She assures him she does.

She’s now as pissed as I am. She says she wants her keys back. He tells her that he doesn’t have them, and asks why if she’s not there to buy a car, why she wasted his time. He then tells her he’s going to give her a deal so great that she won’t want to comparison shop, and if she understood more about cars, she’d see that.

Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up.

By now, the whole interaction has become hostile and we are asking to leave. I’m telling him I’m not going to let her buy a car from him, and he stops talking to me, and only speaks to her. He refuses to let us leave, and nods at another salesman who has the doors to the dealership locked (it had just closed) to keep us in.

We are seriously beginning to wonder what the hell is going on. He continues to insult me and try to awkwardly flirt with her until he says, “Let me talk to my sales manager—you’re not going to believe the deal I’m gonna get you!” and leaves the office.

We can’t believe what we’ve walked into. We both agree that we’re being held against our will.

At this point, there’s a guy washing windows who has been watching the whole thing and takes pity on us. He looks at us and asks if we want to leave. We excitedly say, “YES!!” and he goes to a drawer and pulls out her car keys. He then opens the door to the dealership and we literally run to her car. We start driving away when I realize I’ve gone the wrong way and have actually driven deeper into the lot and need to turn around.

By now, the salesman has seen what’s happening, comes out of his manager’s office and is running through the lot screaming for us to come back. I am honking the horn at him, telling him to go Bleep himself. He starts to run in front of the car but I don’t slow down and he gets out of the way. I jerk the wheel and get us onto the street and am flipping him off, honking the horn, laughing at him and telling him he's an asshole. Not sure what he was doing at that point, but he was watching it all, and he didn’t seem happy.

That incident left such a mark on me, that it would be ten years before I would so much as walk into a dealership again. I’m glad to report that my subsequent dealings went a lot better.

The irony was, about a year later, we ended up in the same evening college class at Georgia State University. He didn’t remember me, but I remembered him, and he was still every bit the jerk he was at the dealership.

The best start up ideas for 2016 are those ideas that solve the equation: “ I need X but Y”

UBER is a great idea that solves the equation. “ I need a taxi but I can’t wait for it”

The best ideas for 2016 change how we live and how we operate. They fix the simplest problems we have which we had grown so accustomed to that we had assumed they were fixed. The best businesses re-imagine the problem within the framework of technological advances. The biggest opportunities are to meet the problems that people had grown complacent of. They had grown so used to that they have accepted them as a way of life.

Uber is the prime example; smartphone technology had been around for 3 years before it was founded, so the technology existing wasn’t the issue, people were simply incapable of imagining an alternative to the inadequate service taxi’s provided. The problem sat in plain sight for over quarter of a decade before Travis recognised the potential solution. Immediately a thriving business burst free and solved a problem everyone had and experienced but nobody appreciated. Never accept the way things have always been done as the only way they can be done.

The best Idea for 2016 however is a simple facebook page. It’s community within facebook called UBER HIVE. It solves the equation “ I need X but Y”

What is Uber Hive?

Uber Hive is a taxi management community for Uber partners.

Why do I need Uber Hive?

I want to earn with UBER but the pay is low.

What can Uber Hive do?

Uber Hive is the platform that helps network Uber partners to predict price surges. The hive enables partners to share and monitor high attendance social events happening in their location.

How does Uber Hive work?

One thing Uber does to try to predict demand, and therefore surge pricing, is study its data to anticipate surges before they happen. “How do we get more cars to the demand before it happens?” Kalanick asked. One solution for Uber has been to put heat maps on drivers’ versions of the maps that visualize anticipated high-demand areas 15 minutes ahead. [Forbes]

Uber Hive follows a different route to predicting demand. It follows the social route.

Uber Hive works, based on the guiding principle that high attendance social events are surge triggers. The hive utilizes the awareness of community members to share surge triggers in their current location with one another within the community.

A2A: Here's a HUGE business opportunity for the next 5 years:

There're no boundaries for this service.

With a laptop you can manage this business using the highly qualified on-demand workforce available around the world.

The world is on your hands! It's all about mobile smartphones. Everyone around the world is hooked 24-7 with these devices.

But here's the problem:

Every business struggles with sales!

Everyone is fighting for attention.

Attention is hard to get in a world where information is abundant and free but disorganized with no value.

If you master digital marketing services to capture attention of customers through mobile devices your services will be in high demand.

How to achieve this?

Create a DIGITAL media marketing company. Be professional. Be patient. Study. Stay focused. Anyone can achieve this, you need to educate yourself and build your virtual team.

There are many +1M dollar digital marketing agencies worldwide.

If we consider the millions of people still coming online every month the market will continue to grow.

I was living in my car while working as a taxi driver. This client was all pissed off because the company he went to get some help for his business, was sending him around for different papers. I asked him what that company does exactly? He replied that is a business consulting company specialised in obtaining european funds in order to develop other people businesses. For a second I was like "OMG" , can you say that again?

The way he said it and the way I heard it ... just the explanation itself it sounded so powerful, so ... wow !

While I had no clients in the taxi, I was reading on google everything I could find about what a company like that does. That explanation just got stucked in my head and was making my heart beat faster every time I was thinking about it.

But in order to open a such company...I need it accountants, engineers, secretary, etc, which I couldn't afford to hire. Not to mention that I need it money for office, bills, advertising, etc, which I didnt have it. But I was sleeping in my car... I had nothing to loose, and whatever plan would have came to my mind, was worth trying it. I suddenly had a new dream. Suddenly I had a reason to fight for something. I wanted to get to a point when if someone would ask me what do I do for a living, to say "I have a business consulting company specilased in obtaining European funds in order to develop other people businesses".

So I started asking all my taxi clients what do they do for a living. And whenever I was finding someone who might have been suitable for my future company, I was proposing to start a business and they would get shares. I tried to concentrate on young people, hungry for money and work experience, who would work their ass off to make our future business a success.

Around one month later, I had a portofolio of engineers, accountants, secretary, advertisers, etc. I set up a meeting with all of them, created a small and unrealistic business plan, and I went to open the company. I was renting an office by hour (only when I had clients) and the rest of my partners would work from home or would go on the clients premisses. I was still working as a taxi driver, still living in my 1995 Fiat Punto, but I was so hungry for success, that I was capable to do anything.

About a year later ... I bought my own house and paid it in cash. All my partners got good profits and work experience. I now had friends, business contacts, my own house, an office in a central location with full time employees.

One day I took a taxi as my car was in service. The taxi driver was very friendly and we start chatting about politics and stuff. Than, at some point, he asked me "what do you do for a living?". To which I replied "I have a business consulting company specilased in obtaining European funds in order to develop other people businesses".

He looked at me and said "What? Can you repeat that again? That is so cool !!!"

No he didn't. He only said "Oh, OK" :-)

But building a business from scratch while living in my car, with people who I met in taxi...while renting an office by hour, was the craziest thing I have done as an entrepreneur.

*Sorry for my english. Keep improving every day!