//
Uber is ready to go big on its “Uber for Business” service in the UK, the part of the ride-booking app specifically tailored for company accounts.
In a job listing posted on Wednesday, Uber says it’s looking for “creative thinkers and builders” to apply to be a “founding member of the Uber for Business Sales organization.”
Here’s what the job of UK Manager of Uber for Business involves, according to the listing:
You’ll be on the frontlines introducing businesses to Uber while developing and testing new strategies around sales. We need a highly motivated self-starter, with an engaging personality who thrives in a team environment.
Uber for Business — known internally as U4B — launched in the US in July last year, integrating corporate accounts to the Uber app so that employees can bill rides directly to their employers.
The service has been hugely popular in the US, with over 50,000 businesses signed up by September of this year. It’s one of Uber’s fastest growing products.
U4B has been in operation in Britain since September last year, but until now has primarily served US clients who have UK operations here. Customers include Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays America, Deutsche Bank, Evernote, Salesforce, and Wunderman Advertising.
Up until now, there’s been no specific drive to sell U4B in the UK, partly because of an engineering issue. Uber wasn’t able to offer centralized billing and invoicing, instead letting you charge to an individual company credit card. That’s cumbersome and not what companies want.
Uber has been focusing on building the backend for its ride-sharing UberPOOL product in the UK, and now that it is launched, the company is beginning to look at building the backend for U4B.
Alongside that effort, it’s building out the sales team for a big push once the tech is ready. BI understands the company is looking to hire several sales people alongside the UK Manager.
Despite the fact that U4B has been more or less in “stealth” mode in the UK, London is already one of the most popular cities for the service thanks to the high number of US businesses with a presence here. Once Uber hires a sales team, it could go stratospheric.
All this is bad news for Addison Lee, the homegrown minicab operator that has been leading the fight against Uber here in the UK. The company’s bread-and-butter is corporate accounts and up until now it has had comparatively little competition in that arena from Uber. That’s about to change.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: JAMES ALTUCHER: This is why owning a home is financial suicide
from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1l7MrO9