With Valentine’s Day looming, many people are trying to come up with the perfect gift to win their sweetheart’s love. That task might just get a little easier if you take a queue from Uber and make use of their UberSky service. UberSky is the latest addition to Uber’s marketing arsenal. Basically, the taxi-hailing service will allow it’s users to request a sky message on Valentine’s Day just like they would request a ride. Unfortunately, the UberSky service will only be available for US Uber users residing in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City or Dallas. So no dreams of having a sky message written for your sweetheart above Table Mountain just yet. However, having your heartfelt emotions written up high for all to see, doesn’t come cheap. It will cost American Uber users $500 to request a sky message. The message itself will also be limited to 12 characters, so users will have to come up with the right words in 12 characters or less. This is where a simple, “I Love You” would probably suffice. The process of ordering a sky message is almost exactly the same as ordering a taxi; users will request to make use of UberSky on their smartphone, after which an Uber representative will contact them and ask what message they would like to put up in the air. After this has been done, they will then be notified as to when to expect their message to be seen. UberSky will be operating between 10 am and 6 pm on Friday, thus limiting the amount of sky messages for Valentine’s Day. UberSky is clearly another one of the company’s many marketing stunts. In the past, Uber US has also let users request many other things, besides a ride. These included ice cream trucks, Christmas trees and even puppies and kittens. To make UberSky work, however, the California-based company teamed up with MasterCard and AirSign to make the project happen. With Uber growing in numbers across the globe, and expanding their service to more than just a ride, we have to wonder if the company is considering becoming more than just a taxi service. While giving people a ride will obviously stay the core of the company, is Uber trying to market themselves as something more? Do they want to instill a mindset of ‘if you need something, Uber it’ ? You decide. As for us South African Uber users, perhaps next year we’ll be able to declare our love above Table Mountain or the Union Buildings.   http://www.bandwidthblog.com/2014/02/12/uber-to-let-users-request-sky-messages-for-valentines-day/