Hi PK,

Generally a very solid approach. What would give you plus points is to sanity check the numbers throughout. Complementary to what others have said the numbers are high.

1) The general consensus is that this 70% is way too high and this might a bias that you want to be aware of (given your tech background). What would have scored you extra points are to think about alternative modes of transportation and that would have prompted you that 70% is likely to be high. Having said that, your segmentation somewhat corrects for this.

2) Second, clear reasoning on the 70% is missing as well. For these high impact numbers, it is smart to mention why you made that assumption (even if it is based on your own experience).

3) Important with market sizing questions is to do a quick sensitivity check at the end. E.g. acknowledging that your analysis is based on a few sensitive decisions/data points.

Hi PK,

Overall I think your approach makes sense. I have a few ideas which I think could improve the market sizing even further:

1. Remove U.S. Population that does not live in urban areas or outside the 300 or so cities in which Uber has a presence. Around 50% of people in developed countries live in urban areas so that could be an easy assumption to use.

2. Reduce overall % of people that are Uber as 70% seems a little bit high to me.

3. Account for Uber's market share in the market. You have other competitors such as Lyft to account for.

Another way to think of this market sizing problem would be to start with the US population and try to estimate how many trips of various kinds that people would need to undertake per day, then what share Uber rides what take from the total.

Hi PK,

A reasonably good and detailed approach....I like your segmentation. Few points that could make it stronger:

1. Market share - The addressable market for ride sharing - 70% assumption seems high considering so may alternatives (own car, public transport in arge cities, etc). In addition, you have to add a "market share" factor for Uber which would reduce the potential Uber rider population

2. Reality check - Once you come up with market estimation, always do a gut check. Your 6.5M rides per day seems v. large (2% of US population or 1 in 50 people will take Uber). A lot of people forget to do this - a good way to differentiate yourself (also a desirable characteristics for a Consultant).

Good luck!

Sanjeev

Hello PK,

I can see at least two different approachs for this estimation.

You can either think about (i) the # of users, like you did, or (ii) the # of drivers. To choose one, think about which one has a lower level of uncertainty on your assumptions.For instance, why do you believe 70% of target users actually use Uber? How can you anchor and justify this number?

Personally, I would choose the second options because I believe it is easier to justify the assumptions needed:

* # drivers in the US

* Drivers segmentation: full-time vs part-time

* Average working hours for both full-time and part-time

* Average rides per hour: average ride (min) + average waiting time (min)

Please note that we can add as many layers of complexity as we wish. For example, we could have split working hours into peak and non-peak.

Try this approach to do the estimation and, then, we can discuss your assumptions as well.

Also, use it to double check your first answer!

Cheers,

Again, good logic but too high estimations

Question - Estimate the number of Uber rides?

Clarifying questions and Assumptions -

Considering only the Delhi NCR region, India

Calculating # no rides per day

Will consider all cab rides (Uber go, Sedan, premier, auto, bike, share, etc) but not food delivery rides

Approach: To come to a reasonable number I will user below equation

# number of Uber rides in Delhi NCR per day = #of uber users * avg. no of rides

Now I will calculate the number of uber users in the Delhi NCR region

The total population of Delhi NCR = 20M

Internet and smartphone users = ~50% so the remaining number is 10M

Assuming the target audience which might use online cab services is 60% which makes it 6M.

Assuming Uber and OLA being 2 major players in the NCR region with equal market share so uber’s market share is approximately 50% which implies 3M users of UBER in Delhi NCR

Now to calculate avg no of rides per day I will break the Uber users in the following segments -

Power users = 10% of 3M = 0.3M and takes 10 rides per week making ~0.42 M rides per day

Daily users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 5 rides per week making ~0.42 M rides per day

Frequent users = 30% of 3M = 0.9M and takes 2 rides per week making ~0.25 M rides per day

Casual users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 1 ride per month making ~0.02 M rides per day

Rare users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 1 ride per quarter making ~0.007 M rides per day

Total uber rides per day = Total no of rides by all different types of users

Total uber rides in Delhi NCR per day is around 1.1 M rides

Hi,

Your approach is indeed a good one.

If you want to master your market sizing skills I suggest you focus on segmentations patterns. You can use the following segmentation for market sizes:

B2C:
-Demographics (Age, education, income, family size, race, gender, occupation, nationality)
-Behavioral (Purchasing behavior, customer journey stage, occasion & timing,
customer loyalty & interest, risk tolerance, user status)
-Psychographic (Lifestyle, personality traits, values, opinions, interests of consumers)
-Geographic (Geographical boundaries)

B2B:
-Company characteristics (Industry, company size, number of employees)
-Geography (Geographical boundaries)
-Purchasing Approach (Occasion & timing, customer capabilities, nature of existing relationship)
-Personal Characteristics (Loyalty, risk attitude, user status)

B2G:
-Demographics (Type of agency, size of budget, the amount of autonomy)
-Geographic (Geographical boundaries)
-Government Tier (Federal , State, Local, Quasi-governmental, International)
-Bid type (Closed, Open)

But sometimes you don’t need to segmentation. Here is an example of case that could be solved with high level top down approach - estimate the size of credit card market in the US:
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-should-i-approach-the-following-question-estimate-the-market-size-of-credit-cards-in-the-us-6695

Hi, I think it is a good approach. Always try to stay in 20 minutes and - if needed - accelerate some estimations by asking to the interviewer

Best,
Antonello

(editiert)