They called it "operation slug". Thus, yesterday, hundreds of taxis declared (yet another) war on Uber, the app that allows you to book and pay for a car with driver via smartphone, blocking the roads that connect Paris to the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airports and of Orly. The protest was launched to rebel against the decision of the Commercial Court of Paris which on Friday rejected the complaint of taxi driver associations, establishing that "UberPOP (cheaper service where instead of professional drivers and luxury cars there are ordinary people who, after passing an interview, they can make their car available for a ride) it is not illegal”.
To defuse the tension, the spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, Pierre-Henry Brandet, immediately intervened by announcing that from 1 January 2015, with the entry into force of the Thévenoud law, the low-cost online taxi service will be banned. “Not only is it illegal – said Brandet – but it constitutes a real danger for the consumer”. Quite the opposite of what the judges claimed a few days earlier.
Yet another boredom therefore for the company born in 2010 in San Francisco and already ended up in the eye of the storm in other European countries, such as Germany and Denmark, and just yesterday also in Australia: during the terrorist attack on a Sydney café, Uber rides out of the city center soared (up to $100 per ride), infuriating customers. The company justified itself by blaming automatic software that raises rates when it registers more requests and promising refunds, but in the meantime the image is damaged.
But Uber does not intend to give up, starting with France. “The recent decision of the Paris Commercial Court – he communicated – is the first and only decision made on the basis of the Thévenoud law and the decision is not to suspend UberPop. Uber will continue in 2015 to apply itself to innovate and offer new transportation solutions that are safe, reliable and accessible”. In other words, the company is ready for yet another legal battle.
After all, it is backed by a monstrous valuation, which will soon pave the way for a record-breaking IPO (three times that of Twitter, for example): after four years, the Californian startup – also backed by funding from big names like Google and Goldman Sachs – worth over 40 billion dollars (32 billion euros) and operates in 45 countries and 200 cities, 20 of which in Europe (Paris was the first, Padua the last). Stccording to the Wall Street Journal, dfter the latest 1,2 billion round of financing, Uber would have even reached the astronomical valuation of 41 billion dollars, clearly detaching AirBnB, the portal (also based in California) that allows you to book private lodgings or apartments for short periods, stopped at “only” 10 billion.
It is also recent news that the main Chinese search engine Baidu would also be ready to invest in Kalanick's app, with the aim of expanding the ridesharing even in the largest Asian market. The partnership would challenge China's other internet player, Alibaba, which has invested in the rival and alternative service to traditional taxis, Kuaidi Dache.
