After testing its Africa chops in Johannesburg, it seems luxury private car driver service, Uber has finally made its way to Cape Town. According to a sneaky blog post by the company, secret Ubers has begun roaming the streets of Cape Town.
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“We couldn’t be more excited for our stealth launch in the Mother City,” said the post.
For the Cape Town leg of its launch the company teamed up with SA Rugby legend Breyton Paulse, who grab the first Uber, earning him the “Rider Zero” tag for the city.
Uber is a US$411-million company that is disrupting the private driver space. Based in San Francisco, Uber makes a mobile application that connects passengers with drivers of luxury vehicles for hire. At its core, the company is an on-demand private driver. Users of the service can request a ride at any time using the service’s iPhone and Android apps or from its mobi site. With your credit card registered on the service, the car picks you up and the trip is tracked from the moment you get in ’til you get off.
The company says though secret Ubers are roaming around Cape Town it is still in its testing phase and that there are bound to be some kinks in the form of limited car availability.
As we are new in Cape Town we want you to have an opportunity to try out the Uber experience on us: If you’re a new user, use the promo code CTLAUNCH and enjoy 2 free trips (up to ZAR100 each). Insert the code in “Promotions” under the menu of your Uber app before October 30th or click here to register. This code is also valid in Johannesburg where secret Ubers have been cruising around town since earlier this month.
Expansion makes sense for Uber right now. After all, it did just receive US$361.2-million in its latest funding round and US$258-million of that is believed to have come from Google Ventures.
Currently in more than 30 cities Uber is eager to get some staff in Cape Town.
