[marme]

Uber is only a household name for younger people in cities. I just recently had to explain to my mother what uber was because she had never heard of it. For people over 50 living in suburbs they never hear about all this companies that many people on here think are huge companies that have worldwide recognition.

You cant say something is a household name until more than 50% of middle aged people can tell you what a company does just by mentioning their name

[nemothekid]

Maybe your folks don't watch as much broadcast television as you'd imagine. My parents (over 50) know what Uber is given

- The amount of name drops the service gets on late night TV (Conan, SNL)

- The news it generates (medallions, the france protests)

- The viral facebook posts that go around when someone spends $300+ on an uber ride to go home.

Despite the fact they live in a suburb.

In any case, if we used your stringent definition of "household name", I doubt companies like Samsung, Sony or Twitter would fit the bill despite having massive consumer reach (and marketing spends).

[benologist]

My 60-something Australian mother knew what Uber was before we even summoned one, here in Costa Rica where their arrival was very publicly contentious.