Communications Major

Uber wants your vote of support. And it has hired a campaign manager to win you over.

Uber, a fast-growing start-up that promotes private car sharing, announced on Tuesday that it had hired the political strategist David Plouffe to be its senior vice president of policy and strategy. The move further signaled the grand aspirations of companies like Uber, which are challenging entrenched industries and running into resistance from some local governments.

What do Lyft, Airbnb, Uber, Pinterest, Wanelo and Anki have in common? It seem they share a similar purpose that could help describe the current era of consumer technology: Bringing the online world to the offline world.