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Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

economist.com

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Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#21

Post by Apocryphon »

67726e wrote: post #3
CamperBob2 wrote: post #2

Honestly, how many other companies, government agencies, or other organizations would hold up under the kind of coordinated, orchestrated drubbing that the media has dished out to Uber over the last couple of months?

I'm not at all a fan of Uber, but at this point it seems like a coordinated smear campaign.

It's not a smear campaign; it's a feeding frenzy. When public perception shifts one way or another, the stories follow to cover it in that angle (though you'd expect at some point there'd be some contrarian hot takes that take an apologist stance towards Uber, maybe something like "Don't blame Uber. Blame the tech industry/gig economy/etc."). There's something rotten at the company, so journalists will naturally shift to cover it and dig up every juice piece of mud they can rake.

Same thing happened to RIM a few years back. None of this is personal. It's just a domino effect.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#22

Post by evv »

sschueller wrote: post #11
twblalock wrote: post #6

Here's the money quote: > If Mr Gurley and the rest of the board cannot find an experienced candidate willing to work with Mr Kalanick, calls for him to step down may grow louder. But that is his decision to take. Uber is a prominent example of founders’ power at fast-growing tech firms. On its own, Uber’s board does not have the clout to change the CEO, because of his super-voting shares and those of his co-founder,…

Well the Captain should be the last one to leave the sinking ship that he ran into the iceberg. :) At this point I don't know if even a new CEO could save this company.

> At this point I don't know if even a new CEO could save this company.

Honestly I am more concerned about saving the world from this company, because it still looks like they are going to win. Have you seen any signs that Lyft can compete in the worldwide market?

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#24

Post by rconti »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #2

Honestly, how many other companies, government agencies, or other organizations would hold up under the kind of coordinated, orchestrated drubbing that the media has dished out to Uber over the last couple of months?

I haven't used Uber since about the third crisis of their own making. Even if it IS a coordinated attack, they launched it themselves, and plenty of folks turned away from the service before the media had a chance to finish their conspiracy plans.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#25

Post by untog »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #2

Honestly, how many other companies, government agencies, or other organizations would hold up under the kind of coordinated, orchestrated drubbing that the media has dished out to Uber over the last couple of months?

Sigh. There is no "coordinated, orchestrated" campaign against Uber by the media. The media will pretty much pounce on any story they are given, provided it checks out.

This pattern of stories about Uber is very familiar and very predictable. It starts with a single, note-worthy story. Based on the reception of that story, other employees (former or current) are emboldened to leak information of their own to the media/write their own blog post/etc. That story feeds another leak, and so on, and so forth. At this point I don't doubt for a second that numerous people inside Uber want Travis gone, and consider the short term bad press to be worth it in order to achieve that goal.

There's no conspiracy here. Just the media reporting things they are told by people in the know. If there were other ways to get rid of Travis (more diverse stock ownership, or, dare I say the word: unions) people would probably go for that route. But when you shut all that off your employees will use the press as a last-resort pressure release valve.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#26

Post by rconti »

aceinaday wrote: post #15

IMHO as a part-time Uber driver, Uber could fix a lot of their current problems by putting tipping into the app. The self-driving car is not here yet, and Uber does not do enough for its drivers. If they would just add tipping I think that better drivers in better cars would start driving again. Without the tips, it's just not worth it.

Or they could just raise the driver's share slightly, which would have the same impact on drivers, riders, and the company alike... without adding the unnecessary friction/confusion of tipping amounts and customs.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#27

Post by bdavisx »

shostack wrote: post #10
twblalock wrote: post #6

Here's the money quote: > If Mr Gurley and the rest of the board cannot find an experienced candidate willing to work with Mr Kalanick, calls for him to step down may grow louder. But that is his decision to take. Uber is a prominent example of founders’ power at fast-growing tech firms. On its own, Uber’s board does not have the clout to change the CEO, because of his super-voting shares and those of his co-founder,…

While I'm not sure I disagree with you, devil's advocate here...do you think you'd feel the same way as a founder who could prevent yourself from ever being fired from your own company? I can think of several situations where retaining that kind of control would be hugely beneficial and important (in the right hands of course, which is the whole issue here).

And that's why Google and Facebook (I think) both took steps for the founders to retain control in that manner. So that they would be able to focus on what's important to the company vs. bs next quarter results. And it's worked out well for both of them. But of course, they don't seem to have the "ethics" issues that Uber does.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#28

Post by paulpauper »

I suspect management quitting has to do more with options being deep in the money and no longer having a financial incentive to stay with the company, more than Uber actually being in much trouble. Sounds like more alarmism. Uber has gotten a lot of bad press over the past few months but the business itself is doing fine.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#29

Post by sandworm101 »

Uber is too young for the phrase "biggest crisis in its history". It has no history. It has none of the institutional depth to warrant such comparisons. That comes only after decades, after a company has survived multiple boom and bust cycles spanning multiple administrations. This is an upstart company run by upstart kids. That isn't bad per se, but we should expect unpredictability. Talk about company history when the CEO is in his 70s, is the child of a former board member, and the head office has become a listed building. Those companies won't grow massively every quarter, but they do know how to weather a storm.

Re: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its history

#30

Post by foota »

robbyking wrote: post #18
aianus wrote: post #7

As a part-time Uber driver in Toronto I haven't noticed any drop-off in ride requests whatsoever. Uber will survive, at least unless someone else beats them to market with an autonomous alternative. I don't get any incentives or bonuses either, just ~75% of the gross receipts from the customer.

I think it's important to remember that Uber users aren't loyal: if a ride isn't immediately available through Uber, they use Lyft; if Lyft isn't available, they go to the next app. While I agree that the service is here to stay, the individual players are likely to shift.

Are uber rides ever not available?
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