It's because "sharing" sounds really good. Everyone knows that it is kind to share, so lots of companies try to stick the word on to their own business.
I hate the way that any company with a vaguely peer-to-peer business model calls themselves 'sharing', or 'part of the sharing economy'. It's not just Uber. e.g. Zopa (a p2p loans company) describes itself as 'sharing', but it's a business where people lend money to others for a fee. AirBnB claims to be 'sharing', but at it's core, it is little more than a hotel booking system. Taskrabbit gets described as 'part of the sharing economy' but no-one is sharing anything, you are paying for workers to do chores.
Since when has sharing involved making a profit by charging users?
I had a similar thought when I saw a person working for a company called favor (https://favordelivery.com/). The dictionary definition of favor: a kind or helpful act that you do for someone.
In the mid 2000's, we were incentivized to call anything remotely possibly nanotechnology related "nano-XYZ". It lead to demonstrably better government grant success.
To be fair, AirBnB has the premise of actual sharing, like I let you use my house when I'm away or stay in my guest room that I share with other people or use for myself at other times… AirBnB is also truly peer-to-peer, at least part of the time. In practice, some of AirBnB is like a hotel, but not all.
In contrast, Uber is not like AirBnB. It sets the rates for drivers, requires certain cars, etc. If Uber really was like AirBnB overall, it'd be a different story.
I hate the way that any company with a vaguely peer-to-peer business model calls themselves 'sharing', or 'part of the sharing economy'. It's not just Uber. e.g. Zopa (a p2p loans company) describes itself as 'sharing', but it's a business where people lend money to others for a fee. AirBnB claims to be 'sharing', but at it's core, it is little more than a hotel booking system. Taskrabbit gets described as 'part of the sharing economy' but no-one is sharing anything, you are paying for workers to do chores.
Since when has sharing involved making a profit by charging users?