Uber is opening itself up to third party developers

We told you it was coming, and here it is: Last week, my colleague Josh Constine reported that Uber was preparing to release an API that would enable its on-demand ride-hailing service to be integrated into a number of third party apps. Today, the company is announcing its API will become available to app developers, with 11 launch partners already signed up. For Uber, the introduction of its API is designed to increase reach and get it in front of lots of new potential users. The company is in 150 cities and nearly 50 countries around the world, but there are untold number of users who might not have tried its service. Showing up in other apps that those users already have installed is a simple way to introduce them to getting an Uber on-demand. This isn’t the first time Uber has made its service available to third parties: In May, it becameintegrated with Google Maps, enabling users of that app to instantly request one of its drivers. But today’s announcement represent a much more ambitious vision for how widely it could be distributed amongst other apps.