5 ms·

Wasn't the taxi industry also one where it had its own corruption and connections with people who may resort to guns to protect their turf? How did companies li

by drchiu 6y ago

Wasn't the taxi industry also one where it had its own corruption and connections with people who may resort to guns to protect their turf? How did companies like Uber and Lyft gain marketshare without incurring some physical penalty?

mimikatz 6y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFQYw_MmAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFQYw_MmAA
jamesmishra 6y ago
Actually, there was a considerable physical penalty. Uber ran into old-school taxi corruption and violence all around the world. - South Korea [1] - France [2] - Kenya [3] - Malaysia [4] - South Africa [5] - Mexico [6] - Brazil [7] - Indonesia [8] - ...and I could go on. [1]: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyzn5/south-korea-uber-kakao-taxi-protests-self-immolate https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyzn5/south-korea-uber-kaka... [2]: https://www.stripes.com/travelers-caught-in-cross-fire-as-french-taxi-drivers-smash-cars-to-protest-uber-1.354901 https://www.stripes.com/travelers-caught-in-cross-fire-as-fr... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/uber-taxi-set-on-fire-nairobi-kenya-industry-dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/uber-taxi-set-... [4]: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/22/more-than-50-taxi-drivers-attack-uber-driver-tourist-couple/ https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/22... [5]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/violence-erupts-taxi-uber-drivers-johannesburg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/violence-erupt... [6]: https://time.com/3915705/uber-mexico-dispute/ https://time.com/3915705/uber-mexico-dispute/ [7]: https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/01/the-fight-against-uber-is-getting-violent-in-brazil/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/01/the-fight-against-uber-is-... [8]: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world/asia/indonesia-jakarta-taxi-uber-grabcar.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world/asia/indonesia-jaka... (Disclosure: I am a former Uber employee.)
- istjohn 6y ago
  One of those links are not like the others. I was not prepared for the first story to be about self-immolating taxi drivers.
  - thatguy0900 6y ago
    I hate the tag line "There's a dark side to the on-demand industry." there definetely is, Uber is a completely unethical company, but if a drivers feeling like they need to light themselves on fire because of competition is more of an indictment on south Korea culture and governance than it is on ride sharing
- notimetorelax 6y ago
  Well the French story is nuanced: > Despite repeated rulings against it and an October law that explicitly outlaws UberPop, its drivers continue to ply French roads and the American ride-hailing company is actively recruiting drivers and passengers alike. Uber claims to have a total of 400,000 customers a month in France. I think France has a long history of violently taking back what’s their’s.
  - _Wintermute 6y ago
    I'm not sure the French people particularly care about the rent seeking racket of taxi driving.
- iso947 6y ago
  None of those seemed to affect the people running uber, or indeed writing the code for uber to work.
ozim 6y ago
That was another externalized cost by those companies. Their drivers were the ones getting mugged and beaten by original taxi drivers.
nojvek 6y ago
Uber and Lyft only really worked because they had billions in funding. They could pay lawyers and millions in fees outfighting the taxi industry. In some countries the Taxi mafia did succeed in outing Uber and Lyft, in some places Uber had such force that they eventually won once someone else got elected. I didn’t quite realize why Uber needed gazillions of dollars, but once a friend told me a significant of their expenses were legal/permit related expenses, that made sense. They had so much money, they could keep on paying fines and keep on growing. I’m glad the Silicon Valley complex is able to churn out Ubers and AirBnBs every now and then. Although they create other second order problems, it’s good to see customers have more choice.
- scollet 6y ago
  This comes to a standstill when ridesharing companies can band together and spill coffers in massive manipulation campaigns. Regardless of your views on Prop 22, for instance, the power imbalance is daunting. When you consider the average voter, it's not clear whether an individual can make an informed judgement.

by drchiu 6y ago

mimikatz 6y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFQYw_MmAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFQYw_MmAA

jamesmishra 6y ago

Actually, there was a considerable physical penalty. Uber ran into old-school taxi corruption and violence all around the world. - South Korea [1] - France [2] - Kenya [3] - Malaysia [4] - South Africa [5] - Mexico [6] - Brazil [7] - Indonesia [8] - ...and I could go on. [1]: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyzn5/south-korea-uber-kakao-taxi-protests-self-immolate https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyzn5/south-korea-uber-kaka... [2]: https://www.stripes.com/travelers-caught-in-cross-fire-as-french-taxi-drivers-smash-cars-to-protest-uber-1.354901 https://www.stripes.com/travelers-caught-in-cross-fire-as-fr... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/uber-taxi-set-on-fire-nairobi-kenya-industry-dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/uber-taxi-set-... [4]: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/22/more-than-50-taxi-drivers-attack-uber-driver-tourist-couple/ https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/22... [5]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/violence-erupts-taxi-uber-drivers-johannesburg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/violence-erupt... [6]: https://time.com/3915705/uber-mexico-dispute/ https://time.com/3915705/uber-mexico-dispute/ [7]: https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/01/the-fight-against-uber-is-getting-violent-in-brazil/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/01/the-fight-against-uber-is-... [8]: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world/asia/indonesia-jakarta-taxi-uber-grabcar.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world/asia/indonesia-jaka... (Disclosure: I am a former Uber employee.)

istjohn 6y ago
One of those links are not like the others. I was not prepared for the first story to be about self-immolating taxi drivers.
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  I hate the tag line "There's a dark side to the on-demand industry." there definetely is, Uber is a completely unethical company, but if a drivers feeling like they need to light themselves on fire because of competition is more of an indictment on south Korea culture and governance than it is on ride sharing
notimetorelax 6y ago
Well the French story is nuanced: > Despite repeated rulings against it and an October law that explicitly outlaws UberPop, its drivers continue to ply French roads and the American ride-hailing company is actively recruiting drivers and passengers alike. Uber claims to have a total of 400,000 customers a month in France. I think France has a long history of violently taking back what’s their’s.
- _Wintermute 6y ago
  I'm not sure the French people particularly care about the rent seeking racket of taxi driving.
iso947 6y ago
None of those seemed to affect the people running uber, or indeed writing the code for uber to work.

ozim 6y ago

That was another externalized cost by those companies. Their drivers were the ones getting mugged and beaten by original taxi drivers.

nojvek 6y ago

Uber and Lyft only really worked because they had billions in funding. They could pay lawyers and millions in fees outfighting the taxi industry. In some countries the Taxi mafia did succeed in outing Uber and Lyft, in some places Uber had such force that they eventually won once someone else got elected. I didn’t quite realize why Uber needed gazillions of dollars, but once a friend told me a significant of their expenses were legal/permit related expenses, that made sense. They had so much money, they could keep on paying fines and keep on growing. I’m glad the Silicon Valley complex is able to churn out Ubers and AirBnBs every now and then. Although they create other second order problems, it’s good to see customers have more choice.

scollet 6y ago
This comes to a standstill when ridesharing companies can band together and spill coffers in massive manipulation campaigns. Regardless of your views on Prop 22, for instance, the power imbalance is daunting. When you consider the average voter, it's not clear whether an individual can make an informed judgement.