The Decline of Uber. What Happened to Uber?
As is revealed from discussions on the same over at runrex.com, Uber is one of the most successful startups Silicon Valley has ever produced, to an extent that it was at one time valued at a staggering $76 billion by private investors. It disrupted the transport industry and threatened vast industries like the mass transit networks, automotive giants, and the huge taxi industry. Founded by Travis Kalanick, who was once CEO before he was pushed out by investors following an investigation into the win-at-all-costs workplace culture at the company as is covered in detail over at guttulus.com, Uber is no longer the shining light it once was. Its reputation has taken a hit as a result of several controversies that have rocked the company in recent years, and it is no longer growing at the pace it once was. The question that now begs is, what happened to Uber? This article will try to have this question answered by highlighting some of the reasons behind the decline of this tech giant.
You can’t talk about Uber’s decline without talking about the former CEO and founder, Travis Kalanick. It is his obsession with world domination that created a toxic company culture for which Uber is still paying the price for even today according to the gurus over at runrex.com. Mr. Kalanick started by hiring lieutenants to act as general managers in various cities in the US and around the world, and each one of them had the power to make major financial decisions. While Kalanick felt that empowering his team was more productive than trying to micromanage each city himself, the drawbacks as far as this was concerned proved to be far costlier. This is because, as chronicled over at guttulus.com, city bosses rarely had to check in with headquarters to make decisions and they began approving seven-figure promotional campaigns without much thought which created a massive financial strain on the company. Cultural issues also began to crop up due to this hands-off approach, with the New York office for example being known for its “bro” culture leading to lots of harassment allegations and resignations that damaged the company’s reputation. All this originated from the top with the CEO’s hands-off approach and win-at-all-costs attitude creating a culture that threatened to bring down the company.
Uber was also held back by poor ethical practices as is covered over at runrex.com. An example is a case in Indonesia where Uber set up what was referred to as special “greenlight hubs” where drivers could quickly get inspections and other services. These hubs became a huge traffic nightmare and cops threatened to have them shut down. The local Uber manager, instead of moving the hubs, decided to pay off the cops, coming up with an elaborate bribing scheme, in an example of poor ethical practices and corner-cutting that contributed to Uber’s rapid initial growth, but that also came with great risk. Once the scheme was revealed, the Department of Justice came down heavy on the company, triggering massive investigations on the company’s dealings in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and India. Speaking of China, another reason behind Uber’s decline has to do with the company’s attempts at expanding and competing in China. Uber’s move into the Chinese market in 2017 seemed like an excellent move given the huge growth potential there due to the large Chinese population as is outlined over at guttulus.com. However, the move encountered more challenges than that company had anticipated and it ended up being unsuccessful, costing Uber over $1 billion along the way, and contributing to its eventual decline.
However, what really damaged Uber’s prospects was the series of revelations regarding sexism and sexual harassment that dogged the company in 2017, in what was Uber’s Annus Horribilis. It all started in early 2017 when Susan Fowler, a former Uber employer, wrote a viral blog post detailing how sexual harassment was rife in the company and worse still, how the company had ignored her sexual harassment complaint. This badly damaged the company’s reputation according to industry experts including those over at runrex.com. As if it wasn’t enough, it was later revealed that the company planned to profit on President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from certain companies from entering the US, and while the company tried to explain that its intentions were misunderstood, the backlash was swift and unforgiving, leading to the now-infamous #DeleteUber hashtag on Twitter that successfully led to more than 500,0000 people deleting their Uber apps, and threatening to flatten the company’s then-impressive growth curve as is explained over at guttulus.com. The blows just kept on coming as the company was then slapped with a federal lawsuit over the IP theft of self-driving car technology. While there can be no denying that Mr. Kalanick deserves a lot of credit for creating a world-changing company, one that experienced staggering growth from a startup in San Francisco to one of the largest companies in the world, there can also be no denying that the culture he cultivated eventually led to Uber’s decline.
The above discussion only just scratches the surface as far as this topic is concerned, and for more on this please check out the highly-rated runrex.com and guttulus.com.