Customers & Drivers Start a #DeleteUber Campaign in the US; Lyft Surpasses Uber in Daily App Downloads!
The most talked about news right now, Muslim Ban, by Donald Trump has not gone down well with a lot of people in the United States, and especially not the immigrants. The order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for a period of 90 days.
The country has also suspended the refugee system for 120 days, thereby leaving a lot of refugees, even permanent residents, stranded. A lot of tech firms stood by the immigrants and launched campaigns against this ban, while Uber did not speak against Trump’s ban and this upset a lot of customers and riders both, a lot of whom are immigrants.
This was the reason #DeleteUber has been trending on Twitter and a lot of customers, as well as drivers themselves, are uninstalling Uber and switching to other platforms. Uber also tweeted, during the protests at JFK Airport in New York, that there will be no surge pricing for riders going to the city from the airport.
Many people mistook this tweet to be a protest against the strike by NY Taxi Workers Alliance, and the hashtag started to trend. Uber was quick to apologize and even show an intent to solve problems for those stuck at the airport, but no one listened this time.
Jonathan Gaurano, an Uber driver and a YouTuber, posted a lot message on Facebook on why he is deleting Uber. An excerpt read, “I have the power to work for this company, and choose not to do so anymore because of how the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, continues to be feeble in making a strong stance against the president’s policies, especially his executive orders banning entry of citizens from 7 Muslim countries.”
Jonathan has tried to express the disagreement in Travis Kalanick’s actions as opposed to his speeches. Lyft, on the other hand as already pledged $1 million to ACLU, a non-profit that fights for the civil rights of the citizens.
Uber’s loss is Lyft’s gain
As the Uber drivers and riders delete apps from their smartphones, they switch over to Lyft, the second largest cab-hailing service in the US. For the first time on 29th January, Sunday, the day of the protests, Lyft saw the higher daily downloads than Uber.
On Apple Appstore, Lyft rose to number 4 on the top charts and was trending throughout. This is a big deal for the app because it was always ranked in the 30s and rarely went to the 20s.
Uber saw a drastic decrease in downloads and users leaving its service, which is a tough decision considering the strength of the company, but Lyft was the second best choice that struck a chord with both the immigrants and their supporters.
Even then, Uber has a huge market share in the US, while Lyft is only starting to grow. We don’t know how long this will last, but Uber has already outed an email to all the drivers to pacify them and their protests.
Source: Business Insider
