Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20

http://blog.uber.com/ICanHasUberKITTENS

by natasham25 • 13 years ago

117 65 13 years ago

blog.uber.com

jlees• 13 years ago

This is genius marketing. I've already seen a bunch of friends go nuts over the idea and I hope those kittens find great homes through the initiative!

xamdam• 13 years ago

Raise demand for young cats, surely it will not impact more young cats being produced (and killed when they get older). Want a pet? Get and keep one.

wiredfool3• 13 years ago

1 day, they're shelter cats, and the proceeds go to shelters.

pallandt• 13 years ago

What the...?

This is a reputable company offering the service, not some sketchy back-of-the-alley vendor. It could be a wonderful service for people that cannot keep pets in their rental apartments for instance, or people that live with someone allergic to cat fur preventing them from owning a cat, or plain and simple people with really busy lives that wished they could own a pet but know they'd be unable to care for it properly.

Personally I've wanted countless times to keep a cat for the long-term, it simply wasn't possible because I knew I'd end up neglecting it, especially considering that kittens require so much attention.

What's the harm in this? Instead of sitting in a shelter all day long, the animals are socialized well, they get to experience varied new environments and maybe even end up being adopted by the customer.

Have you considered that this could also be great for old, retired and lonely persons, like someone's grandma that lives all by herself and barely gets any visitors?

prezjordan• 13 years ago

I know it's fun, but I honestly think they're testing the waters with this sort of thing - same goes with the "Call an Ice Cream Truck" campaign from this summer.

Uber = On-Demand... anything?

wiredfool3• 13 years ago

Eels on wheels?

this_user• 13 years ago

Uber has repeatedly done specials, e.g. delivering a mariachi band last year. I really don't think any of this is meant as a permanent product, but more as a PR strategy. And in this case they can also claim to do it for a good cause.

mason55• 13 years ago

Uber = On-Demand... anything?

Yes, Uber has said in their interviews (or maybe it was pg talking about them?) that once they have the infrastructure set up to deliver a car anywhere they can branch out into on demand delivery of anything.

fudged712• 13 years ago

It was soon after that Google invested $200M+.

I believe that Google's driverless cars have a bigger financial gain by delivering goods rather than people. We all think they're doing the automated taxi thing, but I think that's just to make the general public comfortable with driverless cars being on the roads.

aetherson3• 13 years ago

(A disclaimer: I work for Flywheel -- we're an Uber competitor. Take anything I say about Uber with a grain of salt.)

I'm not sure how much synergy there actually is between "get a taxi on demand" and "deliver goods on demand." I mean, taxis have existed forever. Presumably, if someone thought it was cost effective, they could have used taxis as a logistics network long ago. But taxis are really, really, really expensive (and Uber black cars are yet more expensive) in terms of what people expect to pay for shipping. UPS or the postal service will ship a small package across the country for me for $10 or less. A taxi in SF won't go a mile for $10.

Is there some reason to believe that Uber changes the game with regard to all that? They aren't drastically lowering the price of taxis. Their success has been in raising the service level of taxi-like-services, and in reducing the inconvenience of getting a taxi dispatched to you. I don't say this to take anything away from Uber -- I think they have a fantastic service -- but I don't see their successes as being things that really have a lot to do with what you want from a goods distribution network. If what you want to do is have a very expensive courier service for some kind of physical good, do you really mind calling dispatch and talking to a person?

blhack2• 13 years ago

Now do it with puppies!

ISL• 13 years ago

"National Dog Day" appears to be August 26.

Of course, every day is a good dog day. Perhaps Uber will consider doing something like this quarterly.

sjmulder• 13 years ago

My girlfriend is a big fan of both kittens and cupcakes. This would be perfect for her, too bad it’s not in Amsterdam.

Over the summer Uber had some cool stuff here. You could hire a boat with friends, and the ice cream truck of course.

PeterisP• 13 years ago

This does feel a bit weird - short-term rental of petting animals? I'm worried about mishandling, animal cruelty and the whole concept - pets form an attachment with you, doing it as a short-term rental isn't an acceptable way of building a relationship...

yid• 13 years ago

pets form an attachment with you, doing it as a short-term rental isn't an acceptable way of building a relationship...

I will adopt any cat that forms an attachment to me in 15 minutes of petting (I don't own any cats).

showerst• 13 years ago

I've seen volunteers walk shelter pets down the street and take them to the park, where dozens of strangers (hopefully!) stop to pet and play with them for a few minutes.

Sounds harmless to me as long as the animals have long-term support too.

malandrew• 13 years ago

There is actually a lot of value in this in that it helps the animal socialize. Animals with a lot of human contact and contact with other animals (assuming all such contact is positive) form fairly pleasant dispositions. Those animals which "don't play well with others" generally grew up with a lot less human contact and/or contact with other animals, or that had negative experiences with other humans and animals.

hsod• 13 years ago

My college had the local shelter bring dogs to the library during finals week for stress relief. It was wonderful, and the lady from the shelter said the dogs loved it.

wiredfool3• 13 years ago

The bog standard way of getting animal adoptions is to take a bunch of kittens/puppies to a public place, and let people hold/play with them. And it works, because generally, puppies and kittens like socialization, and people are more likely to adopt an animal if they see one.

Though, normally it's free, and the animals aren't delivered by a taxi service.

blhack2• 13 years ago

I used to volunteer at an animal shelter:

One of the big things they stressed, at least for the dogs, was how important it was to play with the them. Expose them to people, scratch their ears through the grate on their kennel, pay attention to them, etc. etc.

The reasoning being that dogs who are used to humans, and are affectionate towards them, are more likely to get adopted.

If this was for dogs, it would be a HUGE benefit to them. Getting them out around people is almost always a good thing for them.

w0utert• 13 years ago

Cats are nothing like dogs though. While it's also important to socialize kittens as soon as possible to make them comfortable around humans, I don't think it's a good idea to haul them around town in a car. Cats don't like to be taken outside their known environment at all, and they don't like to be locked inside a box, or transported in a noisy car.

Just to give some perspective, my own cat loves people, strange or familiar, it doesn't matter at all. Take her to the vet in a car though, and she will go mental, crap and pee in the cat carrier, meow and hiss when she gets let outside of it (never does that otherwise) and be extremely edgy for sometimes 2 days afterwards. I wouldn't go as far as saying this is 'cruel' to the kittens, and it's great that the proceedings are donated to an animal shelter, but I'm pretty sure the kittens will not enjoy it nearly as much as the people who get to cuddle with them.

jaynos• 13 years ago

I'm worried about mishandling, animal cruelty...

From the article "You will have a chance to adopt the Kittens! YES, IT’S TRUE! For more information, please chat with the shelter representative that will be assisting with kitten wrangling!"

All kittens come with a shelter representative who will presumably keep an eye on you and the kitten.

swalsh• 13 years ago

I had this idea a few years ago. Before my wife and I moved to a place that allowed animals, I used to wish there was a way I could rent a dog while at the beach.

dsl• 13 years ago

I had this idea too. Except I want a kitten or a puppy, then like Netflix I can send it back and get a new one as it ages.

sharkweek2• 13 years ago

The shelter I used to volunteer at had a program where you could take the dogs off site for the day -- it was the best thing ever for the dog as it got a day out in the world as opposed to in a kennel.

It never ceased to amaze me how quickly they would get adopted after an off-site day; seemed to just hit a reset button on their stress levels.

jamesaguilar2• 13 years ago

Gotta find a problem with every idea, no matter how minute, right? This is hacker news after all.

aasarava• 13 years ago

The welfare of animals isn't really a minute problem. It's ok to want more info on how the cats are selected and treated for what is ultimately a publicity stunt.

sharkweek2• 13 years ago

I guarantee you it gets a bunch of shelter cats adopted. Anything that raises awareness of shelter animals gets an A+ in my book.

pcwalton• 13 years ago

Short-term pet rental is fairly common in Japan and elsewhere. They are regulated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_cafe

You have to select cats that are well-socialized, but it can be very healthy for both participants if done properly.

gucc1• 13 years ago

What does this have to do with HN?

jrockway• 13 years ago

Uber is a company from the San Francisco Bay Area, and HN is a site about companies from the San Francisco Bay Area.

al1x• 13 years ago

Uber is a startup, and HN is a site about startups. FTFY.

elag• 13 years ago

Uber is the poster child of Bay area 'p2p capitalist' startups covered on HN and if anyone was in any doubt about there being a second bubble this effortlessly invites the pets.com comparison

650REDHAIR• 13 years ago

Few things

-It's a great PR gimmick for Uber/CheezBurger and it's something others can learn from.

-Uber articles typically end up on HN because of their presence in SF and that a lot of HN users use Uber (all of the 50~ people that I personally know on HN have used Uber) or are otherwise connected to people who work at Uber.

-Ben Huh is awesome. He's a great advisor and him being involved means I'm going to upvote it.

-Kittens on demand = cool.

-Kittens, cupcakes, and raising money for a good cause = Awesome.

3825• 13 years ago

It is not just a PR gimmick. Look at this line:

> No cash required! Donations will be charged directly to your Uber account.

This is big as most everyone who signs up now has an account with Uber. Once Uber has my credit card information, I am less hesitant to use their service in the future. It sounds like a great way to reduce friction to me.

Off-topic: I remember when the only reason I signed up for Living Social was because Amazon.com was giving me $10 in gift certificate. I thought they were idiots for giving me free money. Of course, I don't think twice about having a $90 gift card balance "because it never expires".

vinceguidry2• 13 years ago

This seems incredibly underpriced. Make it $50 and target office parties, add another $50-100 for catered cupcakes and they'd make a ton of money for shelters.

pmjordan• 13 years ago

Kittens at office parties seems cruel. Cats can't stand crowds of people and will try to hide, not want to play.

vinceguidry2• 13 years ago

I think it's learned. No kitten I've ever met shied away from people.

nutjob123• 13 years ago

This is kitten prostitution

mcantelon• 13 years ago

Pretty much. I went to one of those places in Tokyo, years ago, where you pay to pet cats and it was a depressing place. There were cats who were into it, but there were cats who clearly didn't want to be there (and some who'd been confined to cages that looked like little human apartments and were pacing constantly inside them).

chrismonsanto• 13 years ago

I've been to a cat cafe in Tokyo, and I don't remember seeing any cats in cages. I do agree that it was a depressing place though, none of the cats were interested in interacting with the humans.

The place still seemed popular. I don't know why. The one stray cat I found during my stay in Tokyo was much more friendly than any of the cats in the cafe.

natural219• 13 years ago

http://www.puppycopter.com/

tehwalrus• 13 years ago

The internet is leaking again...

Seriously, this is a great way to get some kittens adopted from shelters. I am in the UK, and very jealous.

bayesianhorse• 13 years ago

It does look ok. Depending on the age of the kittens it would be nice to tag the mother along, but otherwise 15 minutes shouldn't harm anyone.

This kind of business, when not tied to an ethically operated shelter, has a lot of abusive potential, of course.

bfe• 13 years ago

BTW I presume Uber implemented this in LOLCODE?

HAI

CAN HAZ UBERDEPLOY?

VISIBLE "O HAI! WILL U HAZ UBERKITTY?"

LOL VAR R USERSEZ

IM IN YR LOOP

    GIMMEH USERSEZ

	IZ USERSEZ LIEK "KITTENS!"?

        YARLY

            VISIBLE "KITTYZ IN YR LAP!"

	    UBERDEPLOY

	    KTHX

        NOWAI

            VISIBLE "CAN U HAZ KITTYZ?"

	    KTHX

	KTHX

KTHXBYE

deletes• 13 years ago

I'm so going to learn this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCODE

AnkhMorporkian• 13 years ago

Please don't, the LOLCODE market is competitive enough already.

msane• 13 years ago

This is completely, absolutely brilliant.

wehadfun• 13 years ago

This seems like something that would come out at the beginning of April

madcaptenor• 13 years ago

In the SF financial district; I could not get a kitten.

cupcake-unicorn• 13 years ago

Has anyone done this yet? Or too early to get the kitty van? I see the "Kittens!" option in Uber but don't see the cat icon.

andrewryno• 13 years ago

We just had the kittens at our office (they just left). They have 3 cars doing it, and we were only the second company to get that car.

One of them really liked me (Artemis). :)

lucidrains• 13 years ago

"Sorry, all Kittens are currently being snuggled. Please try again soon!" :(

rsfinn• 13 years ago

All right, that does it.

If I see ONE MORE CAT on the Internet, I'm leaving.

I mean it. Don't push me.

Edit: Oh, they're adoptable? Well, all right then; I'm for that.

Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20

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