As Uber Crackdown In France Continues, Uber Downloads In France Reach Record Highs
from the marketing-the-controversy dept
We've been covering France's bizarre war against Uber, starting with last week's taxi driver riots in which they overturned Uber cars, set fires, and held drivers and passengers hostage. This was followed by a bizarre caving in by the French government, who didn't go after the taxi drivers for their actions, but rather declared that Uber should be stopped and told law enforcement to seize the cars of Uber drivers. And, yesterday it went up a notch with two top Uber execs in France getting arrested and accused of the horrible crime of "inciting illegal employment" in a country where the unemployment rate continues to rise.We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber, so this crackdown seems rather bizarre. And, not so surprisingly, it seems to only be creating that much more interest in Uber in France, with the service reaching a record high in downloads since this all went down.
So I decided to take a look at Uber downloads in France, to see what happened during the strike. Not surprisingly, they spiked. In fact, Uber last Thursday was the second-monst downloaded iPhone app in France, which was the first time that had ever happened. Then, on Friday, it hit the top spot.As Uber has discovered in the past, controversy can be great marketing. But it really makes you wonder what French politicians think they're doing here. Yes, there are some people who really hate Uber, but the public certainly seems to find the service to be pretty damn valuable.
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It's been a while since Governments cared about what the public thinks.
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Re:
I don't know, they sure put a lot of effort into hiding what they're doing from the public.
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Right to Make Forgotten
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Re: Right to Make Forgotten
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Streisand to the phone please
Please everyone check your cellphone for news about Streisand! We repeat EVERYONE please check the internet for news about MOST WANTED APP in France please.
And thank you for using Uber!
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Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
And there'd be no one but a poor driver to sue. A driver who's already skating and would just skedaddle. -- The Uber corporation isn't AT ALL responsible if drivers are "independent contractors". You can bet your last cent that the corporation wouldn't care even if you're paralyzed for life.
So enjoy your Uber ride.
Uber is like a Ponzi scheme in that wlll run until losses mount, then collapse all at once.
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Re: Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
Taxi Licenses in Paris cost so much because legacy taxi companies lobbied to have them raised to prevent any new comers from elbowing in on their market share. They've created their own problem and nobody's talking about it because it's easier to blame someone else when you've failed to innovate.
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Re: Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
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Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
And there'd be no one but a poor driver to sue. A driver who's already skating and would just skedaddle. -- The Uber corporation isn't AT ALL responsible if drivers are "independent contractors". You can bet your last cent that the corporation wouldn't care even if you're paralyzed for life.
So enjoy your Uber ride.
Uber is like a Ponzi scheme in that wlll run until losses mount, then collapse all at once.
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Re: Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
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Re: Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
For now. Their service will be well-established in cities around the world just as self-driving taxis become practical. At which point the "independent contractors" are no longer needed, except for fares heading to areas with poor wireless data or mapping, or where self-driving cars are likely to be flipped and burned.
Of course the traditional taxi services will adopt self-driving fleets at the same time. The difference between them and Uber will disappear.
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Re: Suppose you're in an accident during Uber trip. Do you know whether you're insured?
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Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
We all know the reason: Masnick LOVES Uber -- which, incidentally, was funded by his precious Google, which directly funds Masnick.
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Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
"The company has since pledged to refund the entire cost of her ride.
A spokesman said: 'We apologize to this rider for any inconvenience and we have provided them with a full refund.'"
Damn that Masnick for supporting companies that help their customers... "socialism"...
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Re: Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
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Re: Re: Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
Even the average American would read up to 26 lines.
The average American trolling idiot like out_of_the_blue, though - he'll just happily admit he never reads articles and insults everybody else for actually reading them.
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Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
It's funny that you call this instance concerning Uber an anomaly. From my experiences, overcharging tourists, rude drivers and bad driving is SOP with the taxi industry.
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Re: Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
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Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
Now let us talk about the same issues with cab drivers, shall we? Do the bad ones go out of business? Hardly.
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Re: Re: Why no amusing anomalies here like this "trip from hell" via Uber?
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No such thing?
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Duh...
basically translates to:
"XYZ is a boon for consumers"
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France's reactin to Uber
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"We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
You and a couple of the fanboys think it's great, but the overwhelming tone is that people distrust uber.
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Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
Well gee! It seems like the public really seems to like Uber!
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Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
Show me the rise in Uber rides from this. Is there one?
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Re: Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
A massive spike in downloads of the Uber app on the other hand is evidence of nothing. Because clearly a ton of people who don't like Uber just downloaded their app because... reasons?
Good to know.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
A lot of people have just heard of it for the first time - it's in the news - they've downloaded it to see how it works. There's no evidence they like it, there's no evidence they've entered their credit card number and used it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
Need Gwiz and Ninja for the line.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber,"
I'd like to thank my parents, and my friends, I couldn't have done it without you guys...
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Yippee!! Another article's comments almost entirely hijacked by a troll!
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Bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys.
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Good job, sport!
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Could also mean that the Uber app has simply become a collector's item.
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