Uber is available in over 700 cities worldwide. It’s no surprise that it is now one of the leading ride-sharing apps all over the world. Building an app for ride-sharing or other gig-based services can be infinitely rewarding. This article breaks down how to build an app like Uber for your own unique business model.
How Uber Works
Uber is a platform that allows passengers to request rides from a freelance driver. The rider can pick their pick-up and drop-off point and the app will calculate the fare depending upon the distance they choose to travel. The app then does work in the background to connect them with a nearby driver and offers them an estimated arrival time.
Users of an app like Uber or Lyft enjoy the simplicity of the service, as they no longer have to have the right change to pay their driver. The app charges their credit card at the end of the ride. However, in some countries, Uber drivers may accept cash.
Uber is not one single platform. It is actually two apps that work in tandem with each other to provide a seamless experience for both the rider and the driver. When you are trying to figure out how to create an app like Uber, it is important to remember that mobile app development for this project will be more complex due to the dual apps you will need to create.
How to Create an App Like Uber
If you’re thinking about Uber-like app development, you’re going to need to understand a few things. It will require you to invest a lot of time to research, plan, and develop your app.
1. Do Market Research on Your App Like Uber
Market research will be important to embarking on your business venture. While market research might be complicated and time-consuming, it will ultimately be a rewarding experience. Market research will help:
- Guide the direction of your ride-sharing app
- Inform your app-building process
- Direct your marketing efforts
- You choose integral features
As you engage in market research for your app, make sure that you adequately answer questions that help you to see information like the projected growth of the industry, and your target audience demographic information.
Remember, the more information that you can gather the better poised your company will be to succeed.
2. Create a Plan and Estimate Cost and Time to Create the App
Once you have completed your market research and gathered all the information that you could accumulate, it is time to create a plan. Part of the planning process is figuring out the cost and time required to develop your app.
Some key considerations that you will need to keep in mind when you are creating your app like Uber are:
- How many apps are necessary
- Functionality requirements
- Design decisions
- iOS and Android development choices
- Cost to build
- Programming languages you’ll use
- Inclusion of Google Maps API
- UI and UX design
Typically, an Uber-like app will require three separate apps that work in conjunction with each other. They will have an app for riders, an app for drivers, and an administrative app that will allow your company to manage both sides of the business. Each individual application will require specific functions.
Rider App Functions:
- Registration
- Ride booking
- Ride tracking
- Fare calculation
- Payment
- Notification management
- Messaging (between riders and drivers)
- Reviewing system
- Historical information
- Customer support functions
Driver App Functions:
- Driver status and profile
- Trip request notifications
- Navigational functionality
- Driver statistics
- Messaging (between drivers and riders)
- Notification management
Administrative App Functions:
- Management of both users and drivers
- Location management
- Fare management
- Review management
- Notification management
- Discount management
- Vehicle management
- Management of FAQs and other system content
- Analytical information management
- Payment management
When you are creating an app like Uber, it will require you to have considerable knowledge of programming to do it yourself. Typical development times for a ride-sharing app like Uber or Lyft can be at least six months but if you decide to program the app yourself it can take much longer, especially if you are not adept at programming to start.
You can work with an app development agency to decrease the development time necessary to build your app. When you work with an app development agency they can help guide you along the development process. While it will typically take some time and expense to develop your app with an app development agency, the expertise that they can bring to the process is worth the expense.
3. Plan Out Your Milestones and Develop Your App Like Uber
Uber is now worth over $75 Billion, while it may have taken them a decade to build their business to this level, it may be easier for you to increase your business’s standing due to their growing pains.
If you are looking to build a successful ride-sharing app as an entrepreneur, you will need to plan out many different milestones to fully understand if you are having an impact on the market.
Some milestones that you may want to track are:
- Time to the first customer
- Time to 100th customer
- Time to 100th driver
- Funding goals
- Website visit goals
When you track these various breakthroughs, you will be able to easily adjust your tactics if you fail to meet them in a sensible length of time.
One important thing to consider when building your list of goals for your company is to use SMART goals. SMART goals are a type of goal originally designed for time management but can be implemented across a variety of different goals.
SMART is an acronym that stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
By creating a specific goal that you can easily measure and achieve can help to temper your expectations. While it may seem like building an app is a way to quick monetary success, it often takes much more time than is originally expected.
Additionally, oftentimes, business owners will want to include metrics that are not necessarily relevant to determining their success or are not linked to any specific time frame. When you create a goal that isn’t time-bound or relevant, your business can quickly go awry.
4. Testing Your App Like Uber
When looking at how to create an app like Uber, make sure that you consider the time it will take to test your ride-sharing app. Testing is a key component of building an app, but most importantly an app that requires as much coordination as a ride-sharing app.
Should you choose to work with an app developer they will have a built-in process of testing your app so that you know that it works. If you choose to build the app yourself, you will need to find and compensate beta testers for their time.
You will need to beta test all three components of your Uber-like app if you want to ensure that your business is successful.
5. Launch Your App Like Uber
The final stage of building your app like Uber is to launch the app. Launching your app is where a lot of the market research you performed comes into play. Your market research will help to inform the way that you market your app to new customers.
You will need to have included additional features into your app that differentiate your product from the ones already available on the market.
When you launch your app it will be important for the success of your business to consider how you will market your app. You can either use pay-per-click marketing like Google Ads, social media marketing, or search engine optimization tactics. If you thoroughly performed your market research, you will know what tactic will best suit your target customer.
6. Collect Feedback to Improve Your Ride-Sharing App
After you have launched your app to the world, your work is not complete. You will still need to collect, analyze, and act on data about your app as it gains real-world users. An app should be a living thing, always growing and changing with the needs and wants of the end-users.
This is where working with an app development agency can come in handy. They can help you to see your needs for future testing and implementation and can help to take some of the work off of your plate.
Overall, while creating an app like Uber can be difficult, it can be a rewarding way to build a new business. If you would like to create an app like Lyft or Uber, contact Orange County app development agency, Idea Maker today.
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