It is well known that Google has given its mapping technology to the ride sharing company Uber, which was revealed its IPO filing in public on Thursday. Uber said during the filing that Google map technology is vital for its platform. The map technology of Google is used in the app when a customer enters the destination. The technology helps in showing the destination route, the current place and the estimated overall time to reach the destination.
Uber further told that joined hand with Google in the month of October 2015 regarding map services. Uber further said that it has paid nearly 58 million US dollars to Google for its services in 3 years. After the signing of the agreement, Manik Gupta, who was the project management director for Google Maps was hired by Uber. He is now the chief product officer of Uber. Uber acquired a new map technology startup known as deCarta in 2015. The deal amount was not disclosed.
As Uber does not have an alternative, it will have to continue the deal with Google for some time period. Both the companies Uber and Google have a long history of entanglement with each other as both are operating in the field of technology. But later the two companies started to compete with each other in the same fields such as self-driving car technology.
Alphabet, which still owns 5% of Uber’s outstanding shares, took the stake in the direct rival of Uber in the US market known as Lyft. Uber was sued by Alphabet in 2017. The claim was that Uber had stolen its trade secrets. In order to settle the case last February Uber had to pay 0.34% equity stake to Waymo which amounted to around $245 Millions. In 2013, Google invested an amount of $250 million in Uber.
