Shipping Frustration Turns into $125 Million Business at uShip
Profitable, Growing Global Transport Marketplace Doubles Revenue in 2009
12.02.2009 – In 2002, Matt Chasen sat frustrated in the back of a nearly-empty 20-foot moving truck in Seattle. The 9-foot rental van he ordered was sold out, meaning he was about to drive his relatively small set of belongings in a virtually empty truck 2,500 miles to Texas.
Then lightning struck.
Chasen imagined filling the extra space with people’s items headed in the same direction. But how could he find them? His inspiration (and question) would eventually become uShip, largest global online shipping marketplace.
uShip has stayed true to Chasen’s original vision: connect people with transporters to make shipping more efficient and affordable. Feedback-rated transport companies, often with excess capacity or already making a similar trip, place competing bids to win business and ship customers’ cars, freight, household goods, horses, boats, pets, heavy equipment and more. As a transactional business model, uShip earns a fee from every completed shipment on its marketplace.
Launched in 2004, uShip has topped $125M in business transacted in just five years, two-thirds (about $82M) of which has occurred during the recession. In 2009, uShip’s revenues doubled versus 2008 and it also enhanced local settings for customers in the UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. uShip turned profitable in 2008.
More Growth Numbers
• eBay item shipments on uShip have topped $30 million
• Launched international support for non-U.S. shipments in 2005, and today uShip deliveries have gone into and out of nearly 100 countries and regions
• Compared to 2008, non-U.S. shipments globally are up 500 percent and UK listings are up 272 percent
• 900,000 shipments have been listed on uShip since it started
• Over 26,000 customer stories have been left on uShip, thousands more on Facebook
• At any given time, $8-$10 million in shipping jobs are available to transporters on uShip
• 160,000 transporters have registered and placed 2.8 million bids on uShip
• Transporters on uShip have traveled 185 million miles, equal to 755 trips to the moon
About uShip
uShip is the first and largest online shipping marketplace that connects people and businesses with feedback-rated transporters to make moving more affordable and efficient. uShip’s patent-pending search technology helps 160,000 service providers find and bid on hard-to-ship items, such as cars, boats, freight and households, to fill empty cargo space and dramatically reduce transport costs. Since launching in 2004, over $125 million in business has transacted through uShip, which is backed by Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures, and based in Austin, Texas.
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- News Facts
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- uShip connects people with feedback-rated transporters who move hard-to-ship items like cars, freight, household goods, horses, boats and more
- Competitive bidding by transporters drives down customers' shipping costs, saving them an average of 50%
- Over $125M in business has transacted on uShip since in launched 2004
- Transporters on uShip have traveled 185 million miles, equal to 755 trips to the moon
- uShip shipments have gone in, out or within 100 countries around the world
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- uShip, transport, shipping, cheap shipping, auto transport, car shipping, household movers, boat transport,
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Matt Chasen, uShip CEO and Founder
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