As a company fighting off the attacks of the authorities and the striking taxi drivers and how he sees the future of transportation, he told RBC Vice President Uber Ryan Graves.

"Services in Russia could be better"

- The Russian division of Uber is not very large, we have the market there is much more strong players - "Yandeks.Taksi" and Gett. At the same time, we communicate with you in Moscow, and is generally the first visit of a top manager and Uber shareholder in Russia. For what purpose are you here?

- In Russia, we are really not very big, but in the US about us said the same thing two years ago. We have started in Russia only in 2013, to really develop the business scale only began in 2015. So we are at a very early stage of development. We have a total of seven cities, but I think that before the end of 2016 we will be seventeen.

The presence of competitors makes us pay more attention to detail in the development. Do you have good players? Excellent. At the same time we have our users and their number is increasing, and this shows that people want to have an alternative because the existing services in Russia could be better.

- CoTorons consumer services all look very similar. What are the advantages of your application?

- For us, technology - is the foundation of building a business. We need to understand when and where there is demand [by consumers], where our drivers are arranged traffic in the city. Then we have to make sure that supply and demand are the same, that our drivers meet with passengers. In fact, this is the moment when the technology found in the real world, and in this moment we are working.

We have a lot of evidence on how this or that city "moves", we use this knowledge to our driver came to the passenger at the right time. Using a vast array of data and algorithms, we understand not only how many cars on the road and in the city, but also are able to direct them to where born or about to demand appears. This makes us different from many of our competitors.

For small arrays of data it is impossible to make such "predictions" well - it takes time to gather information on the setting of algorithms. All this leads to improvement of service - in particular, to reduce the deadlineThe machines from 15 minutes to eight. When this time will be two to three minutes, passengers simply no longer want to catch a taxi on the street or use competitors. These are the things we're going to do.

- But while the three-minute filing does not exist. There are technologies that are already working?

- Just recently, we introduced a function in Russia, which allows the driver to obtain information about the next trip even before the end the current. This allows it to more effectively plan the route, reducing the waiting time increases the number of trips and, of course, brings in more money. Our task - the driver is connected to our platform, can be used every second of time.

This may be because the drivers when they want to connect and disconnect from our system, and we have to keep track of these constant fluctuations in supply. To do this, we use regulatory mechanisms, such as the surge pricing (dynamic pricing when Uber introduces a factor at the standard price travel with increased demand, for example due to the holidays or just badweather. - RBC), to align supply and demand. By and large this is marketpleys - we should be focused on how the passengers, and the drivers, among whom there is also a competition. At that moment, when it is possible to achieve success on both fronts, you win.

- You mentioned that for you Russia - one of the most promising markets, while you are investing a lot in China and India. Your strategy - to be everywhere?

- We have a global strategy. I spend a lot of time with Uber teams in different cities, I - Regional focus is now the focus of Moscow.

- Competitors in Russia you are not afraid, but what about the others? Recently, Chinese Didi Kuaidi, of Ola Indian, American and Singaporean Lyft Grab Taxi teamed up to confront you ...

- I read about it. Generally, we only competition - it has a beneficial effect on the market as a whole and makes everyone work better. Ultimately, the consumer wins. At the same time, I do not think they [the competitors] presence or absence of a serious impact on our strategy.

- How Uber budis to develop in 2016?

- We now have about 400 cities, 68 countries, of which only 44 - in EMEA [Europe, including Russia, the Middle East and Africa]. In general, we are "regionalized", that is transferred to the management of the local teams to start the process of new towns. The most promising cities we already have for our business. Now you have to understand what is the maximum size of [the population of] the city that we were profitable to work in it.

In fact, we are beginning to come to a kind of mikrorynok. For example, I was in college, located in the small town of Oxford in Ohio, there are about 16 thousand. Students, and probably 10-12 thousand. Residents. That is the entire population - less than 30 thousand people, but Uber works there.. The drivers come to the city in the busiest days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. That is, the system is not working 24 to seven, but the drivers are using our platform to understand where the jobs are, and thus we create additional value for this micromarkets. It is very interesting. It would be nice if we got to implement this approach throughout the world and gainUber minute even in such a small town.

We will continue to expand very quickly - it's part of our DNA. We will develop, until we understand that everything within us to grow nowhere else. In this moment we have not reached that stage.

"We are constantly engaged in dialogue with regulators"

- There is a feeling that when Uber was a startup, all loved him. As you increase more and more critical of - caught on surveillance of customers, taxi drivers are protesting against the service around the world ...

- Everyone loves Uber. Otherwise, our business is not growing as fast as it grows today. Let's be honest: this business is not growing, if no one has used it repeatedly and regularly, if drivers do not earn us good money. Business does not grow would be if what we are doing for the city - raise traffic safety, reducing the number of accidents due to drunk - it would not be useful. In addition, we bring the city's transport infrastructure, value added tax, public transport, which simply can not be everywhere.

Uber - this is a blind platform, which all the same, what is an area in which the passagera income level, it's a platform that just works everywhere and serves the city. And when you bring these innovations, they are taken. Of course, there are forces that are not interested in all this, and fight with us. So, naturally, I do not claim that everything like Uber. But our partners, drivers, our passengers, people who love their city and want to develop them, who understand what benefit it brings Uber, - they all love the company, they were her fans, and it is quite accurate. We can not make everyone happy, and to be honest, I'm not going to do that. My concern is to bring happiness to those who use the Uber.

- But you will not deny that you are always looking forward to? The authorities of some countries prohibit Uber.

- I will not, of course. We are constantly engaged in dialogue with regulators. Over the past year, some of our services feel some resistance.

- In France, for example, your disagreement with the ban of regulators led to riots, and then the arrest Uber managers in July in Paris have detained the head of the French subsidiary and chief Thibault SimfalyaCompany management in Europe Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty. Do not you think that sometimes you are too stubborn or something, go ahead, needlessly exposing their employees?

- As I said, it is obvious that a certain pressure we feel. Nevertheless, Uber is always ready to cooperate with regulators and answer possible questions.

If you are fair - we have made a number of mistakes, our approach is not always helped us in countries such as France, where reforms are needed. But we have learned from our own mistakes.

- When you communicate with your competitors, such as Gett, the first thing they tell us about the Uber, - as you literally attacked them when they came to New York. Ostensibly your employees caused their machines, canceled trips, and most importantly - trying to entice drivers to themselves. The same tactics, according to reports in the Western press, you are using in your fight against the main American competitor - service Lyft. It is fair competition?

- I know the situation you're talking about. I think we were trying to understand how the platform works competitor to be competitive - andall. It's no different from how they could use our system to understand how we work. So when the story is told with only one hand, it is easy to do something interesting, but I would not do this sensation.

- You can use the location data of a passenger, the itinerary of his trip to observe them? Do you fear that the data in the event of a leak can be used for criminal purposes?

- I have a lot of attention paid to the problem of personal data security. And I think that if you dug deeper into the case with these stories, you would see that the argument there is not the strongest. We have the most stringent standards in the way we handle the data on journeys, to ensure their safety. If a passenger or the driver does not trust Uber, he will not use it. For us it is a basic element in the work.

Our team is dealing with security, headed by Joe Sullivan of Facebook (Uber hired Sullivan in April 2015, to Facebook, he worked on cybersecurity in a Skype and PayPal, previously worked in the Ministry of Justice of the United States, where he racesedovaniem cybercrime. - RBC). We hired him to engage in just matters that you specify.

- You open very little evidence: no one knows how much you earn, what you gain, how many drivers you are working ...

- I do not think that we necessarily talk about it. We just do not need. We do not disclose these figures. For us it is important not the number of connected cars, and how they meet the existing demand.

- In August, Reuters reported with reference to your internal reporting that your turnover, ie, the entire volume of Uber orders in the world, from which the company itself gets 20%, in 2014 was $ 2.91 billion this correspond to reality.?

- Nice try. But we do not disclose details. We prefer to measure business in feed rate, first serve machine in a new city somewhere in ten minutes, and now in the Uber hotel came to me four minutes - and it's pretty good. We want the car came to you for a few minutes. And this is how we want to be measured.

- In early December, Bloomberg wrote that in the last Johnestitsionnom round appreciated you at $ 62.5 billion. The capitalization correct?

- Assessment of the case. But do not forget, we're still a startup, though, and a great ...

- The world's largest ...

- Still, the startup and the focus for a startup - a very important thing. When you are all this talk about assessment, about the IPO - it's just not our focus. It is important, as we serve the city in which we operate. And though I hate to repeat, but if we, together with the team focused on the right things, our business will continue to grow.

Co-owner of Twitter

25-year-old DBA Ryan Graves in 2009 threw "neglamurnaya", he said, work for GE Healthcare internship in geolocation service Foursquare. The booming startup he started canvassing the various institutions, trying to convince them to partner with Foursquare.

In 2010, the future co-founder of Uber Travis Kalanick wrote in his account on Twitter, which is looking for a product manager in the "new geo-location service." Graves replied immediately: "I have an idea, write to me on e-mail», - he wrote a tweet KHellanike. As a result, Grace became the first salaried employee at the same time CEO Uber. Six months later, the company was headed by Kalanik and Graves continued to engage in operating performance - from the search for drivers and employees in new cities to overseas expansion.

Occupying a leadership position, Ryan Graves is a shareholder Uber. In 2015, Forbes magazine estimated the state of Graves in the $ 1.5 billion -. At the moment all Uber capitalization was $ 50 billion That is, the proportion of Graves in the transport service can be about 3%. In the last round of Uber investments worth $ 62.5 billion, which means that the state already Graves may reach $ 1.9 billion. Sam Graves prefers to call its billions of "virtual" money, but it is recognized that even this "hypothetical wealth" now exceeds the wildest dreams his youth.

"I'm not ready to get into the car without a driver"

- You talked about the synergy with public transport. Do you believe that Uber will be able in the future to replace it?

- I do not think you should use the phrase "instead of public transport." We are quite able creatureing into harmony. We had an interesting situation in Boston, where one of the branches of the train was closed, and we were doing a trip exactly its route: the passenger were taken to the first station and transported people to the city center. Surprisingly, we then managed quite well to service the route of the train. That's why I'm talking about a prosperous coexistence.

- So you still have not had any problems with the public transport? Such as a cab?

- If the services are trying to best serve its customers, in fact, they never have any problems. But if the services, whether it be a taxi or something else, do not provide their clients with the best service, then they have a problem. This is a business. We in the company believe that this reality is soon to win business, which is focused on how to meet customer needs in the best way to win.

- Uber has become virtually a household name, and the word "uberizatsiya" is already being used widely. What do you think about it?

- I've seen all these applications - for the Uber, Uber for this. It's flattering. onWe were able to change the way people imagine the movement in the city, and we are proud of. If you look at how many people used to spend money to buy a car, gasoline ... Now people refuse owning machine, because they understand that they can use the Uber, it is convenient and safe. In Seattle, for example, the number of road accidents and accidents involving alcohol dropped by 10% thanks to Uber.

- What do you think most companies trying to learn from different spheres of business model Uber?

- Now many attempts "uberizirovat" service apply the model on demand [in translation - "on demand"] to all in a row. But we are in the company is constantly talking about the demand for a particular service. Most of the things consumers do not need as often as movement. Most people go from home to office and back again, maybe a couple of movements during the day - it is three or four trips a day. It occurs to me only one thing that may be necessary to people as often - it's food. That is why we are interested in this area.

If the service is not much SunRequire - it is a problem for a successful on demand service. Now there is an application for the order of services for cleaning the house, washing machine, but whatever, we see attempts of such companies to scale their activities. But while many of the services to run "no fly" - is not easy when there is a constant demand.

- Uber experimenting with the delivery of goods from shops to helicopter flights. In what other industries or areas of plans or may start Uber?

- We are a logistics and technology company, is unlikely, of course, we ever become media company. But even many variations around the traffic, if you can deliver the human machine, which means you will be able to deliver and sandwich. So we have UberEATS (so far works only in 13 cities of the world, including Toronto and Paris), which delivers food from the best restaurants in town. We highlight all that is best in the city - be it food or goods delivery. Of course, this is still only experiments and a very small fraction of the business in comparison with our main. But a lot of opportunities.

[Co-founder and CEO ofnlayn service commissioned by taxi Uber Technologies] Travis Kalanick likes to say that soon we all peresyadem on self-managed vehicles. At Uber even has a special program of research in this area (the company opened its own laboratory for the development of the prototype UAV, in which scientists from Carnegie Mellon University are working).

- You're talking about the care of automobile owners and at the same time seeking to go on drones? Obviously the same as drivers, in this case you will generally not needed.

- I'm probably not the right person in the company, to answer this question. I believe that this technology has great potential to improve the lives of people. On average, road kill about 1.25 million people a year, and 90% of those tragedies caused by human error. In addition, using more efficiently the existing road infrastructure, the drones will help reduce traffic congestion, improve quality of life in the city. About 15% of the urban space in average allocated for parking. Reducing the number of private vehicles will free up this space.

The advent of unmanneds cars will not happen overnight. However, this technology will be part of the transport of the future, and he himself is a part of Uber.

- What can be more innovation in the Uber?

- Personally, I think that a great future - for service UberPool (joint service trips), it will help us reach the next level. See, first we had UberBLack, then we could start UberX [and become a mass service] with UberPool we can significantly reduce the price to reach more people. When I order Uber San Francisco to go to work, I'm out of the house and look around: look left - Uber car, right - there is also Uber. At this point, I understand that, in principle, all of these people might be in the same car. This means more money for the driver, a higher efficiency of the entire system.

Of course, common carriage - this is not a new concept, a very simple idea, but a very slozhnoosuschestvimaya from a technological point of view. You do not get this service without Uber scale necessary technology and understanding that now this and now that the trip can be like them and give one driver. We naprimep until launch a similar service in Moscow, because there is no proper understanding of the market and its scale. But if we can run UberPool in several cities around the world, it becomes clear how good this idea - for both drivers and passengers, and in general for the cities in terms of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for example.

- Maybe you need to transplant your drivers to electric vehicles? For example, the Tesla, to achieve even faster results from an environmental point of view?

- I went to the Tesla - I liked it. To be honest, I think this is the future. But it is necessary to understand that we are simply a platform: if the driver with an electric car to connect to us, we will be happy, but it's not our job. I hope that the world will move in this direction and this is relatively near future.