[1]UBER - Chaos at the world's most valuable venture-backed company is forcing Silicon Valley to question its values By KATY STEINMETZ and MATT VELLA
Over the past eight years, the hard-charging ride-hailing company has grown into a global powerhouse worth nearly $70 billion, distrupting the taxi industry in 76 countries and creating an app relied on by millions both for rides and for in come.
THe wildly successful company has also been plagued by scandal from the start. Class-action lawsuits, driver revolts, cringeworthy aux pas by its brash CEO, you name it.
The firm was aggressive. Because taxi companies held monopolies in many cities, Kalanick cast them as the villains in a big-guys-vs.-good-guy drama. The big guys which he once referred to as a collective "asshole" were heavily regulated, with laws varying greatly from city to city. And the good guy, Uber, ignored these rules in order to bring consumers a better service.That was attractive to many workers, but caused several cities to ban or suspend the service.
Some of UBER's problems were on public display. Drivers sued over their legal classification, saying Uber sholud treat them as employees -with the attendant benefits- if it was going to do things like set the price they could earn per mile. Some complained they weren't even making minimum wage.
Sillicon Valley's heroes have always been rule breakers: Bill Gates' willingness to "borrow" a good idea, Jeff Bezos' disregard for epic losses, Elon Musk's flouting of the status quo.
On their way to epic success, cmpanies like Google and Facebook broke the rules and made their own. Most of us went along with it so long as we were getting better stuff, smarter search, faster phones.
The tech industry subsists on a virtuous cycle of consumer trust in exchange for continually improving and mostly free services
so far, Valley companies have mostly delivered on promises to change our lives and make them better in ways that other industries generally can't. But if these promises start flling through -if a company like Uber begins to look like a naked grab at monopoly rather than an earnest attempt to make life easier to navigate - the faster the Valley will appear out of touch.
Future startups are going to make decisions that will impact the lives of millions, defining the world the way religions and empires used to.