You know that old maxim about there being no such thing as bad publicity? It looks like car-sharing Uber is living that to the full, having just been banned in Germany and seeing a huge spike in business as a result.
Uber seems pretty gleeful about the whole affair, announcing the spike in a blog post where it announced that the Uber app has hit the top 10 downloaded apps in Germany. Residents of Hamburg and Dusseldorf seem particularly taken with Uber, with a reported 590 per cent rise in signups in Hamburg and 518 per cent in Dusseldorf.
Uber has been banned in Germany for much the same reasons it seems to be banned (or stated to be illegal, as happened in Adelaide last week) everywhere: lack of licensing and compliance with local laws. Time will tell if Uber acts as the disruptor it so desperately wants to be seen as, but in the meantime it simply seems to be using the outrage to fuel its own PR campaign and raise awareness of its services.
Does it follow that you actually want your venture to be banned? Probably not, but it is a solid example of taking a negative effect and spinning it into some obviously very positive and potentially profitable marketing.
UBER SIGNUPS INCREASE UP TO 590% IN GERMANY IN LAST 24 HOURS [Uber]
Comments
3 responses to “Does Uber Prove Getting Banned Is Good Business?”
It’s worked for songs for decades. Why not!
What is complance, and what does it have to do with local laws?
Streisand effect: Gotta love it.
An increase in the number of users is moot if they don’t have the drivers to cater for them. Once drivers start copping fines and decide that it is not profitable for them they’ll stop driving for uber, uber usage will fall, etc etc.
Actually Uber is paying the fines when they are handed out, so no drop in drivers thus far. An increase in users = and increase in voters using the service, politicians listen to the voting masses.
Uber is not above the law, follow the local law & regulation problem solved … get with the program uber (uberx-uberpop) .. the truth is uber is not a tech company its a transport company. #read.uber.term.n.cond. just like ebay is a market place . #Cutthetechbullshit
The truth is uber is ……a transport company ……. that cheats….. its drivers, its customers and the communities in which it operates.
Uber is prosecuted as an illegal taxi operator for clarity and surety that the prosecution will stand up, but it is actually about 2 much more significant issues.
1. Law and order and the sovereignty and legitimacy of government. Laws and regulations are the code that run our societies. Undermine the validity of them ….., the system breaks. So its not just about taxis, its about transport of all sorts, food standards, environmental standards, land use and zoning, the list goes on.
2. Insurance…. uber offer cheaper prices by cheating on expensive safety items. They cost shift insurance back onto the community by having no or inadequate insurance. In Australia they even openly admit it…. $5m per event from and offshore unrecognised company when every other motorist is required to have $20,000,000 per claim …. there may be more than one claim per event., from a company with a presence in the country so that it is subject to the laws of the country, not whatever convenient story suits the moment.
#ubered