Uber at five: focused, combative and still growing like crazy

SAN FRANCISCO -- As he stood before a room filled with Uber employees, drivers, investors and press at the company's headquarters here Wednesday night, CEO Travis Kalanick offered a close-up look at the combative attitude and hyper-focus that's helped spur Uber's rapid growth around the globe.

"We've faced resistance every step of the way," Kalanick said during an address that celebrated the ride-hailing company's fifth anniversary.

It was a not-so-subtle reference to a controversial operating history that's been peppered with lawsuits from riders, cries of dirty tricks from rivals, cease-and-desist orders from several U.S. cities and strikes and protests from taxi drivers overseas.

Yet the company's growth continues unabated, as it now operates in 58 countries and 311 cities.

Uber has 1 million drivers, 1 million square feet of office space and provides more than 1 million rides per day.

In one measure of the pace of its growth, the company said roughly half, or 8.6 million, of the 17 million customer service requests it's resolved over the last five years have come just this year alone.

Kalanick, dressed in a lavender Oxford shirt and blue sport jacket and flanked by Uber-blue balloons, called the service the world's fastest, most reliable and least expensive transportation option.

He also ticked off a list of attributes that make Uber "the right choice for cities" around the globe: less traffic congestion, cleaner air, more jobs.

"Fewer people owning cars, fewer cars on the road… less pollution and more prosperity" are part of the company's long-term vision, Kalanick told the crowd of several hundred, which included San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener.

In a measure of that prosperity, the formerly press-shy company offered more details about its service.

Uber now has 26,000 drivers in New York City, 22,000 in San Francisco, 15,000 in London and 10,000 in Paris, Kalanick said.

Yet it has even more in China, illustrating the global attractiveness of being an Uber driver, a job which provides a large amount of flexibility.

"In what other job can you do that – turn it on and turn it off?" at will, Kalanick asked.

He made no mention of the company's current round of fundraising, in which it's reportedly looking to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from investors at a valuation of $50 billion, nor of any IPO plans.

Yet he acknowledged that Wednesday's event was a new direction for the company.

"It's unusual for us to take the time to reflect," he said.

Uber critics who accuse the company of running roughshod over the laws and regulations in many of the locales it operates will find that statement easy to believe.

Yet that same no-holds-barred approach and laser-like focus on its service are also among the biggest reasons for Uber's success.

"The opportunity is a lot bigger than any of us first imagined," said Bill Gurley, a partner with the venture capital firm Benchmark, an early Uber investor, who attended Wednesday's event.

With the company's cars proliferating around the globe, Uber and its impact look to grow bigger still.

John Shinal has covered tech and financial markets for more than 15 years at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek,The San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal.