Uber Technologies readies its pitch as the Amazon of transportation

Investors to be urged to look beyond ride-hailing to platform

Uber Technologies Inc. and its bankers will hit the road this month with one big name on their lips as they try to entice investors with favorable comparisons to businesses that it seeks to imitate or surpass.

That name is Amazon.com Inc.
 

Amazon was a money-losing internet bookseller attacking the brick-and-mortar fortress of Barnes & Noble Inc. at the dawn of e-commerce when it raised $54 million in its 1997 initial public offering. Its ascent to world’s biggest online retailer -- the everything store -- is seen as a model by Uber as it pivots from its maturing but still unprofitable