Key Points
- Uber is launching Uber Intelligence to let advertisers analyze behavior by pairing their data with Uber’s first-party insights.
- The platform uses LiveRamp clean rooms to enable privacy-controlled audience segmentation and targeting.
- Uber’s growing ad unit, now at a $1.5 billion run rate, is shifting toward advanced measurement and data-driven marketing tools.
The next time you order a burrito from Uber Eats or use the popular ride-sharing app to run errands around town, don’t be surprised if you start to see advertisements that are connected to your food delivery and trips.
The tech-transit company is expanding its fast-growing advertising business with a new data insights platform that allows marketers to analyze consumer behavior based on millions of daily rides and food deliveries.
The tool, called Uber Intelligence, officially launches this week and is positioned as a way for brands to pair their own customer information with Uber’s first-party data to better understand where people travel and what they buy.
Developed in partnership with data-connectivity provider LiveRamp, Uber Intelligence uses clean room technology that lets advertisers match datasets in a privacy-controlled environment. Neither Uber nor its partners can view each other’s raw customer information, a feature intended to offer technical safeguards at a time when regulators are scrutinizing how companies aggregate and use sensitive behavioral data.
Uber executives say the platform gives brands a clearer view of how real-world habits can inform marketing strategies. A hospitality company, for example, could analyze which restaurants or entertainment venues its guests frequent and use that information to shape loyalty partnerships. Marketers can also segment audiences, such as identifying heavy business travelers, and target those users with ads that appear in the Uber app or on in-car screens during trips.
“That seamlessness is why we’re so excited,” Edwin Wong, Uber Advertising’s Global Head of Measurement, told the website Business Insider. “We want marketers to say, ‘I’m not just understanding Uber, I’m understanding Uber in my marketing context.’”
Stock Price
Uber Intelligence is part of a broader effort to diversify revenue by building a full-scale ad business. Since officially forming its advertising division in 2022, Uber has rolled out ad placements across Uber and Uber Eats, in email campaigns, on in-car tablets and on rooftop displays. By May, the company said it had reached a $1.5 billion ad-revenue run rate, a target it previously projected for the end of 2025.
The company has also been developing bespoke services for major brand partners, including a creative studio that collaborates on custom campaigns. Earlier this year, that unit worked with La Mer to outfit luxury vehicles at the Miami F1 Grand Prix with branded amenities for riders.
Industry analysts say Uber Intelligence underscores the platform’s evolution from simply selling ad inventory to offering differentiated measurement and targeting tools. Gartner analyst Andrew Frank said Uber’s access to “terrestrial data” — granular information about where people go and when — gives it a competitive advantage over retail media networks operated by Amazon and Google. But he warned that Uber will have to navigate concerns related to handling highly sensitive location and behavioral data as global privacy rules tighten.
LiveRamp Chief Revenue Officer Vihan Sharma said the clean room framework provides assurances intended to maintain trust. “The whole objective is to build trust between data owners and consumers and the advertising ecosystem,” he said, noting the system provides “zero movement of data.”
