LIVE FROM RISE, HONG KONG: Uber CTO Thuan Pham (pictured, left) suggested it could consider opening up its platform to other companies, as its operational capabilities go beyond booking taxis and deliveries.

He sees its platform becoming similar to Amazon Web Services, extending the power it has today to run its own businesses by enabling other services to be built on top by third-party vendors.

“Every time we start setting up a new line of business, it gets easier and easier,” he said.

The company has evolved into a platform type business with capabilities including mapping, logistics and payment infrastructure enabling it to deliver services across multiple verticals, he said. Its core competencies also extend across finance, accounting, operations and engineering.

When pressed about when the company will become profitable, he said it’s “several years away”.

“Our goal is to revolutionise and democratise transportation and it isn’t necessarily that we make a huge profit margin per transaction”.

Pham said Uber must invest aggressively to grow the business in the face of intense competition, but added as companies go public the segment is maturing, which will allow multiple companies to exist in a profitable way.