Uber spans about 1,200 locations, covering 10,000 towns and cities worldwide. It says it has 3.5 million drivers across the globe and close to 120 million active users at its peak, according to its own estimates.
But the scale of the Uber files – an investigation jointly led by the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – also contains some startlingly big numbers.
In total 124,000 records were leaked to the Guardian including 83,000 emails, plus texts, invoices, briefing notes, iMessages and WhatsApp messages as well as records from the company’s internal communications platform, calendar events and notebooks.
Over the past four months more than 180 journalists from 44 media outlets in 29 countries worldwide have mined these records to reveal how Uber brute-forced its cab-hailing service into cities across the globe.
The files, which span a period between 2013 and 2017, unveil Uber’s aggressive expansion across the world, deploying its lobbyists to engage with more than 1,850 individuals in 29 countries as well as representatives for the European Union.
The leak revealed its lobbying wishlist included more than 1,300 politicians and public officials and more than 500 private individuals including executive or board members, journalists and academics.
This international investigation shows the lobbying resulted in multiple successes, allowing the company to successfully court prominent leaders, influence legislation and help avoid taxes.
ICIJ research indicates that, in the US alone, Uber spent more than $11.1bn (£9.4bn) on lobbying at federal level between 2014 and 2020.
