Uber Invites Developers To Deliver Content On Its App

Called “Uber Trip Experience”, Uber is billing it as the next major expansion of its platform and the biggest update to its application programming interface (API) since March that enabled third party apps to request Uber rides. Then you might be interested to read Uber’s recommendation on the dinner you’re about to reach.

The San Francisco ride hailing giant’s new tool will deliver content including news bulletins, playlists and local travel tips directly to passengers. A new feature known as Trip Experiences is being introduced to do so.

Maybe you chat up the driver when you get in an Uber, or perhaps you stare out the window. But a screen in the backseat is apparently just too hard to resist, and Uber yesterday announced that it’ll soon be feeding you video, news, and more through its app.

“This is the first time we’ve announced a global product outside of the United States and we’re thrilled to be able to launch the new API feature here in India amongst developers through our very first hackathon in Bangalore”, said Saad Ahmed, business development lead, Uber India.

The Uber API has been out in the wild for quite some time now.

So, assuming that a user embarks upon a 30 minute trip, the API could potentially allow developers to serve up interesting content to the user, who as often as not, would be doing nothing during that duration.

While certain apps could see Trip Experiences as the ideal opportunity to entertain and provide a benefit for their existing app users, others may see it as a way to send through tons of notifications and adverts, ultimately causing irritation. The company is planning to set up its first development centre in the country, where engineers will build services and features tailor-made for Indian users.

It’s great that it’s an opt-in feature as Uber will not alienate their user base by monetizing it. Even Uber is aware of this issue, and understands that passengers may be irritated because ads will target them, so that’s why users can’t turn off the feature at any time they want.

Uber is now valued at $62.5 billion and is operating in more than 300 cities. “So users will be in complete control”.