By Rachel Balik
Kim Kardashian may have tried to #breaktheinternet last week, but Uber gave her a run for her money when news broke that one of its executives, Emil Michael, suggested spending a million dollars to run smear campaigns against journalists who criticized it. The idea of taking revenge on journalists is pretty disturbing and definitely out of alignment with our implicit understanding of how society and media should interact.
With that said, all we can really know for a fact is that one person who works at Uber vocalized a really bad idea. But the story spread like wildfire, partially driven by the concern/assumption that his statements represented a company policy or strategy. Normally cavalier about Uber’s identity as a rule breaker, CEO Travis Kalanick deemed the situation dire enough to publicly apologize over the course of several Tweets. Kalanick’s Tweets say that Uber should be “open and vulnerable enough to show people the positive principles that are the core of Uber’s culture.”
Uber is learning the hard way what other companies have taken for granted — that brand and company regulation matters, and you can’t fabricate that stuff overnight. The problem is that up until now, they didn’t need those kinds of regulations. They’ve built a truly groundbreaking technology that is disruptive not only in terms of its social impact but also its backend. It has a beautiful UX; it’s fast and reliable; it’s caused the DUI rate to go down; and it helps women in Saudi Arabia who are banned from driving get from place to place. Drivers and passengers alike rave about its benefits. If you’re that good, you don’t need to be nice, right?
As it turns out, only up to a certain point.
The irony is that regulation, which up until now has been Uber’s arch-nemesis, might have saved them a lot of trouble in this case. An open privacy policy, a public relations policy, a social media policy are just a few things most companies focus on but are areas where Uber seems to struggle.
While the scandal was dubbed “Ubergate” earlier this week, by last night, it had truly earned the title, as the news about Uber’s past of tracking journalists’ usage of Uber hit the web. Furthermore, two former Uber employees told BuzzFeed about something called “God View” that gave Uber’s corporate employees access to any users’ data. Uber released its privacy policy for the first time yesterday, although they claim it has always been in place.
Up until that point, it might have been possible to defuse Michael’s remarks as a one-off error, but the latest update has planted a seed of mistrust that will be hard to kill. The irony is that regulation, which up until now has been Uber’s arch-nemesis, might have saved them a lot of trouble in this case. An open privacy policy, a public relations policy, and a social media policy are just a few things most companies focus on but are areas where Uber seems to struggle. As it turns out, regulation is actually quite necessary, and it seems likely that Uber will need to have a change of heart in order to succeed on the next leg of its journey.
There’s a lesson for us as consumers as well, because as a friend of mine said, “Uber never gave us a reason to trust them.” They simply wowed us with a service that really worked. But ultimately, a user’s experience is bigger than just an app interface. As I wrote previously, I don’t think Uber is more mercenary, more misogynist, or more “asshole” than any other company that thrives in our fine capitalist society, but they are sloppier. Ultimately, that translates into a bad consumer experience.
Uber is neither the first nor the last app that will make our lives dramatically easier in return for an exchange of power. But they are only unique in that up until now, they haven’t put effort into making that exchange a smooth experience. In Uber’s case, regulation and policy were portrayed as things that would have slowed down their growth, and it’s quite possible that that’s true. But they’re also things that would have shielded them from scrutiny, prevented some growing pains, and earned them the kind of loyalty that brilliant technology can’t buy.
Got a tip for The Bold Italic? Email tips@thebolditalic.com.
Photo of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick by Big Omaha/Malone & Company
