How Uber, FB, Airbnb can influence user decisions on where to click, spend

If the app recognises that you are drunk or in a neighborhood you rarely travel to - and one that its data show is high in crime - it could charge you a higher rate, knowing you're unlikely to refuse

Uber’s business model is incredibly simple: It’s a platform that facilitates exchanges between people. And Uber’s been incredibly successful at it, almost eliminating the transaction costs of doing business in everything from shuttling people around town to delivering food.

This is one of the reasons Uber is now among the most valuable companies in the world after its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10.

Yet its US$82.4 billion market capitalization may pale in comparison to the wealth of