The history of how Uber went from the most feared startup in the world to its massive IPO

Uber went public this month on the New York Stock Exchange in a much-watched IPO.Since it was founded in 2009, Uber has transformed the ride-hailing industry and grown to become the most valuable companies in the world.See the highs and lows of Uber in its journey from small San Francisco startup, through its extremely tumultous 2017, through to its 2019 IPO.Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.Ten years ago, a company called UberCab made a splash in San Francisco by letting you hail a car with your smartphone. Since then, the company — now known just as Uber — has spread like wildfire across the globe. But the road hasn't been easy.While its valuation continued to climb over the years, Uber has also fought rivals and regulators as it has transformed from a black-car service into a sprawling empire going after the markets for both food delivery and self-driving cars. It has confronted threats from the taxi industry, endured backlash from its drivers and users both, and weathered internal strife and scandal, including the ouster of controversial former CEO Travis Kalanick.Now, in the wake of Uber's IPO, we take a look at how we got here.This is an update to a story originally published in 2016.