image: blaugh.com

Uber is #superpumped to announce that Palo Alto is going to be Uber’s first expansion outside of San Francisco. It’s a straightforward decision; Palo Alto is the spiritual center of Silicon Valley. The Uber fanbase and our fleet partners in San Francisco have been vocal about extending service southward. Why shouldn’t the Uber faithful have uber transportation options when they venture off into the burbs?

Well, we’re more than happy to accommodate. Uber’s marketing dept. (ummm…we still don’t have any marketing employees) came up with a fun, Uber-esque way of kicking things off. For our Palo Alto Launch, we’re enlisting the employees of Facebook and Google and throwing in some UberLove to make it interesting. We call it the ‘Uber Tech Smackdown 2011.’

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Rules of the Uber Tech Smackdown:
Exclusivity

  • For two weeks – 3/1 to 3/15 – Facebook and Google employees have exclusivity on all pickups in Palo Alto
  • For Palo Alto pickups, Uber users MUST have a Facebook or Google employee email address registered with their Uber account (go to http://www.uber.com to change email settings)
  • Palo Alto is defined by the geo-fence shown below- – Destination location does not factor into exclusivity

The Race

  • The contest is to see which company’s employees can do the most Palo Alto rides over the exclusivity period
  • The winners will be rewarded handsomely

The Stakes

If Facebook wins…

  • All Uber trips between Google HQ and Facebook HQ (either direction) will be FREE for the next 6 months – #PoachingInStyle
  • All Facebook employees registered before 3/15 get $20 in credits
  • All Uber users who ‘Like’ Uber between 3/1 and 3/15 will get $10 in Uber credits – just go to Uber.com, login, and then hit the “Like” button at the top of the home page

If Google wins…

  • All Uber trips between Google HQ and Facebook HQ are twice the price for 6 months #PoachingCounterMeasure
  • All Google employees registered before 3/15 get $20 in credits
  • All Uber users that have signed up with a Gmail account by 3/15 will get $10 in Uber credits

The Play-by-play

Update: Yes, we know that Google is not in Palo Alto and not included in our Geofence below.  A few points: a) Facebook has home-field advantage in the contest, but GOOG has 10x the number of employees to make up for it — b) ANYONE can do a pickup outside of our Palo Alto geo-fence