The disruptive impact of platform businesses on local economies has received much attention, but virtually none has been paid to the factors that impact platforms’ decisions about where to locate their activities. The novel, disruptive nature of platforms limits the relevance of traditional theories about location decisions. We argue that local institutional conditions and global legitimacy spillover affect the choices of platform businesses about where to operate. We analyze the controversial case of ride-hailing platform Uber, an app-based service that matches uncertified chauffeurs with passengers. We find that Uber showed a preference for cities that promote competition and innovation. A spillover analysis shows how Uber leveraged their global pool of customers by choosing cities whose visitors were already familiar with Uber’s service. Our study illuminates the key role played by the brand’s mobile customer base as global carriers of legitimacy for Uber’s controversial innovation.

平台业务对当地经济的破坏性影响备受关注，但几乎没有人关注影响平台活动地点决策的因素。平台的新颖性和破坏性限制了有关位置决策的传统理论的相关性。我们认为，地方制度条件和全球合法性溢出影响平台企业关于在哪里运营的选择。我们分析了有争议的叫车平台优步案例，这是一项基于应用程序的服务，可将未经认证的司机与乘客进行匹配。我们发现优步表现出对促进竞争和创新的城市的偏好。溢出分析显示了优​​步如何通过选择游客已经熟悉优步服务的城市来利用其全球客户群。