Uber Continues to Diversify -- and Disrupt

Uber is rolling out its new "Uber Explore" feature in several major cities this March, allowing users to book nightlife activities and dinner reservations through the app. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The Virtual Opportunities Show," recorded on March 1, Fool.com contributors Jose Najarro, Rachel Warren, Travis Hoium, and Demitri Kalogeropoulos consider whether the move can help Uber gain more market share and increase profitability.

Jose Najarro: I'm going to talk about Uber. They got new features coming into their applications, and in certain states they're already actually live. I just posted the article. I didn't hit "Send." I just posted it on Slido. Right now, the new features going to allow users to either book dinner reservations. You can also book concert tickets or any type of nightlife activities, all from your one app. This would be all under the section called Uber Explore. Like I mentioned, it is available Tuesday beginning in some of the major cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas. It's actually live in New Jersey and upstate New York. I am a Jersey resident, so I might try it out to see how it works. But this is just a way for the company to try to get more market share, more market opportunities, and maybe increase profitabilities. I don't know if it will work. There's certain things that I have maybe a little bit reservations upon.

For example, I enjoy the hey, you can book your dinner reservations. Say, I'll book dinner reservations 30 minutes from now. Uber most likely has all the logistics in the background. Hey, if we send a driver to you right now, you'll make it to your dinner reservation when the reservation is. That makes sense. I enjoy that a lot. For concert tickets I think that might be a stretch because I don't know about most people. When I usually purchase a concert ticket. I purchase many months in advance. I'm not 100 percent sure if I'm going to need a trip or anything during that timeframe. I wonder if maybe later on the day of Uber just hey, reminder. You bought a ticket through us. Now that I think about it, it actually makes more sense. On the day of, they can send you a driver so you can arrive there on time. It makes sense, but I definitely want to experience and get a little bit more reviews from people. Any thoughts from the group here?

Rachel Warren: I think it sounds cool. I mean, one of the things that stuck out to me from this article was the fact that Uber Eats has really outperformed its ride-hailing business. Which is interesting because when I'm back in the states, I do use Uber Eats. I'm ashamed to admit it, but multiple times a day is not uncommon. [laughs] My morning coffee, my afternoon coffee, perhaps some dinner. I'm one of those people. But I don't know, I think it's cool that they're trying to really diversify their business. Because I think one thing we've seen with a lot of companies that maybe have this one central thing they focused on for the last couple of years, struggling to maintain relevancy. I think it's great. They are expanding into this area. I'd be curious to see is it going to match up with the growth it's seeing from its grocery side of its business or food delivery? Probably not, but I could be wrong. But I think anytime you're seeing a company that's already at such a scale, like Uber that's trying to diversify and continually innovate its business, I think it's a good thing.

Travis Hoium: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how this goes because all these companies like Uber, DoorDash, are looking for extensions of their current business. We have you on the platform, you're searching for stuff, how can we add more features so that you both spend more time with us and spend more money on our platform? This one I think is a little bit more of a stretch than something like Uber Eats. I mean, they call it Uber Explore. If it's what you used to explore, like a city that you're visiting for the first time rather than Google Maps, I don't know, that's pretty compelling. We'll see how this goes. This is a technology company, so there's not a whole lot of risk for them launching this. If it flops, then they just shut it down. It is not like they're buying the restaurants [laughs] or anything like that. I like the move for them for sure.

Demitri Kalogeropoulos: Yeah. I wonder if Tripadvisor is getting a little nervous about that. That's their major market right there.

Travis Hoium: What if they get into the flights? They can be really disruptive in a lot of these spaces.

Rachel Warren: That would be cool if it was a flight aggregator type of situation.

Travis Hoium: You just do your whole trip. Whether you're going out for dinner or whether you're going to [laughs] another country, just do it all on Uber?

Rachel Warren: A dinner.

Travis Hoium: That is a long-term vision.

Rachel Warren: Hotel booking. Hey, that will be awesome.