[vishnugupta]

Absolutely! Even in cities like Bangalore, far away from SV but still big, Uber (and Ola) created a new market altogether. In Bangalore for instance, hiring a taxi was an amazingly painful experience; in terms of lack or convenience as well as exorbitant price. Until Uber/Ola came along I had hired a taxi maybe 5 times in 9 years. Since then I've almost stopped using my cars. Uber/Ola has become my daily commute as well as for any errand etc.

Another aspect that's not discussed much is the drastic reduction of cognitive load. Earlier moving around in a city would require lot of planning - route planning, parking etc,. All of that is now a thing of history. And don't get me started on how ridiculously inefficient is car ownership and how mentally and physically taxing commute driving is!