In today's fast-paced world, it's highly probable that one has heard about the ride-sharing company Uber. But with it's recent workplace harassment, relationship with the Trump administration's Muslim ban and aggressive work culture, Uber is suffering the loss of its customers. While the succession of scandals have restricted Uber's hold on customers, Lyft recently received $500 million in funding.
Lyft, an American ride-sharing app giant headquartered in San Francisco, California started in June 2012. Lyft began its hold on the ride-sharing market with its creation by current Lyft CEO Logan Green and current President John Zimmer. Formerly focused on transportation between college campuses, Lyft began to focus on shorter rides between cities. This approach proved to be success, for in April 2014, Lyft managed to launch in 24 new U.S cities in 24 hours. Offering a multitude of services, Lyft has Lyft Line, a service that can match passengers with other riders that are traveling in the same direction. From there, Lyft added on the services Lyft Plus and Lyft Premier, offering passengers a car that seats 6 and a luxury car, respectively. As of January 2017, Lyft announced that publicized that they would add 100 U.S cities, making their current amount of cities served to 300. The success doesn't stop here, because Lyft's recent funding will make the ride-sharing giant worth up to $6.9 billion.
Perhaps the mark of Lyft's rise in popularity is marked by fellow ride-sharing app Uber's action during the January announcement of Trump's ban on Muslims entering the United States. Uber quickly came under fire for advertising it's operation near New York City's Kennedy International Airport, the location where many peoples of Muslim descent were held in custody because of Trump's ban. This action, seen as sympathetic to Trump's ban, resulted in the massively tweeted Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) hashtag, #DeleteUser. While Uber faced disapproval over social media, Lyft publicized that they would donate $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union, a national organization dedicated to the defense of civil liberties.
Similarly, word of workplace harassment added to Uber's plight. Susan Fowler, an Uber engineer who resigned in December 2016, wrote a blog post talking about her experience of sexual harassment by her managers. Once she tried to gain help from the human resources department, she was denied aid and forced to suffer under the abuse of her managers. Fowler revealed disturbing information about the aggressive workplace environment, stating that "It seemed like every manager was fighting their peers and attempting to undermine their direct supervisor so that they could have their direct supervisor's job."
The aggressive work culture of Uber does not stop there. Anonymously reported from people who work at Uber, the infractions of those who hold top positions in Uber are ignored. In addition, Uber was reported to foster unhealthy competition between employees. The list doesn't stop there, for there have been reports of an Uber manager groping a female co-worker, a director shouting a homophobic slur at an employee, and a manger threatening to hurt an employee's head with a baseball bat.
While it isn't clear what other ride shares app are also benefitting from Uber's downfall, the success of Lyft at the expense of Uber's scandals is made clear. After the #DeleteUber hashtag trended, Lyft's market share increased from 16.5 percent to 20.9 percent. Following Fowler's blog post, Lyft's market share reportedly rose to 21.3 percent. Thus, it's no wonder that Uber is receiving funding from prominent investors like the global investment firm AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) and the Japanese electronic commerce company, Rakuten (TYO: 4755).
Lyft President John Zimmer probably puts it best himself. In an interview with the American publication Time Magazine, Zimmer remarked "we're not the nice guys. We're the better boyfriend."