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Today, Uber is announcing that it is ready to move its regional headquarters to Hong Kong and establish an innovation and engineering hub. These investments will create jobs and opportunities for Hong Kongers, with flow-on benefits to the tech ecosystem that will help Hong Kong maintain its position as a world leading city. But, like any business, regulatory certainty is key – it is time for Hong Kong to regulate ridesharing.

Since Uber arrived in the city in 2014, Hong Kongers have embraced Uber – from ridesharing to food delivery technology. In the last six years, Uber has facilitated tens of millions of trips to over 25 percent of the population of Hong Kong. Almost a quarter of a million driver-partners have signed up with Uber to access flexible earning opportunities. The fast growing Uber Eats is also supporting thousands of delivery-partners and over 6,400 restaurant-partners. 

Despite the challenges facing us all, Uber is confident of the long-term economic opportunities in Hong Kong. Cities around the world are only just beginning on the path to economic recovery. After a sharp drop, Hong Kong is already leading the way, with the city already back to over 70 per cent of pre-crisis trip levels. 

We have strong ambitions for our future in Hong Kong and want to use our new regional headquarters to create an innovation and engineering hub that will bring together the city’s brightest young minds. From engineering problems to data insights, operational strategy to marketing, these are the challenges we want Hong Kong’s next generation to be working on with us.

However, progress on regulatory reform is critical. For Uber to be able to fully invest in Hong Kong, we need the Government and key stakeholders to work together with us to find a pathway to regulate ridesharing.

Uber’s General Manager for Hong Kong, Estyn Chung, said:

“Today’s announcement is not only about the future of Uber in Hong Kong, but the future of the City as a global economic powerhouse and technology capital where innovative businesses can thrive and grow. We have always had big ambitions for Hong Kong, but the lack of progress on regulating ridesharing has held back the kind of investments we have made in other global cities – from Sydney to Sao Paolo, New York to New Delhi. This is an exciting opportunity for Hong Kong to play a more important role as the heart of our APAC operations.”

Uber wants to be a pillar of Hong Kong’s economic recovery, and send a signal to other global leaders that Hong Kong is ready to lead the next wave of tech innovation. We ask the Government to work with us to help make this vision a reality.

Regulate ridesharing – bring investment and jobs to Hong Kong.