explaining to me the original vision behind the company. it was for me, my co-founder and our 100 friends to be able to push a button and an s-class mercedes rolls up that was it. but everybody wanted it. all of our friends wanted it and their friends wanted it. we just opened it up. reporter: uber doesn t employee their drivers. instead it serves as a technology middleman connecting them to passengers. its valuation has surpassed companies like delta and hertz but the press coverage hasn t always been so friendly. it was terrifying. reporter: just last month, a sun yore uber executive said at a private dinner uber should pay $1 million to hire opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists writing negative pieces. silicon valley blogger sara lacy, one of the apparent targets of the scheme. i ve covered powerful tech companies for a long time and powerful moguls to a long time. i ve never heard a plan like that detailed before.
driver back ground checks. in portland, madrid, and bangkok, it s been to stop service. and after the taxi industry protested, all for a company that just launched four years ago and is now valued at more than $40 billion. as an entrepreneur, did you think you d be running a car service? absolutely not. reporter: that s uber ceo back in the early days explaning the original vision for the company. it was me, my cofounder and our 100 friends to be able to push a button and a mercedes rolls up but everybody wanted it. all of our friends wanted it and their friends wanted it so we opened it up. reporter: uber serves as a technology middleman connecting them to passengers. the evaluation surpassed delta and hertz but of course, the press coverage hasn t been so friendly.
for for me, my co-founder and our hundred friends to be able to push a button and an s-class mercedes rolls up. that was it. but everyone wanted it. reporter: uber doesn t employ its drivers, it serves as a technology middleman, connecting them to passengers. its valuation has surpassed companies like delta and hertz but the press coverage hasn t been all good. last month an executive said they should hire a million dollars. silicon blogger air is ray lacy one of the targets of the scheme. i ve covered powerful tech companies for a long time and powerful moguls for a long time and i ve never heard a plan like that detailed before. reporter: uber later tweeted the executive s comments wr terrible and don t represent the