As the saying goes, there are only two absolute certainties in life, taxes and death. It seems though that we must now add a third absolute certainty to that saying – not a single week will go by without another troubling Uber story. Uber’s global issues have made it almost impossible to keep up to date with all the news. It seems that not a day goes by without Uber staring in the headlines…and not for the right reasons.
It seems though, that despite all the negative public relations, Uber is still pushing ahead and going strong. Apparently the Uber team lives by Winston Churchill’s famous quote:
If you are going through hell, keep going.
Will these headlines eventually take the toll and put the brakes on Uber’s spectacular growth? It seems unlikely, since the car sharing service launched in 2009, the company has seen phenomenal growth and not even drivers that are allegedly raping passengers will slow them down. Thus far, Uber has brought in billions of dollars in revenue and is currently up and running in 51 countries and over 200 cities.
However, since regulations can vary significantly between regions, the startup has many battles to fight (and win) before it can settle down and relax. The main problem is focused around taxi licenses of traditional taxi drivers. These licenses are their property that is often bought for massive amounts of money. In 2011, New York taxicab medallion prices topped 1 million dollars. Why should Joe pay 1 million dollars for his medallion if Tom can do his job for free? That’s the big issue with Uber and that is one of the reasons courts around the world are quite trigger happy when it comes to introducing bans on the service.
Is this good? Do we want to shut Uber down? It’s a tough question. The property rights of the traditional taxi drivers are a real issue, but as is the way with progress, there is usually a party that gets hurt.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Uber and how things will look one year from now. Until then, Bizzvenue has summarized Uber’s biggest mishaps of 2014 in this handy infographic for your convenience. Enjoy!
