I've been thinking about this as well and not only for Uber. Airbnb and other similar companies could create platforms to allow people to do this on their own. The sad reality, though, is you don't make billions by enabling people, you make billions by controlling people.
You mean like Oracle, and Microsoft? Taking a small % of every cab transaction, sounds like a billion dollar business to me. Right now the only thing Uber is doing is spending more money than it makes.
