2010 Uber had a truly disruptive “100x” product. At the time, they only operated in San Francisco.
But soon, they would scale across the world.
Global disruption of the old taxi industry felt inevitable.
But even the best product can struggle with the product-market fit… if the market repels it.
This was the case when Uber tried to land Europe.
In Europe, taxi business was organized. Local politicians were already “oiled” by the old market interests:
✔️ Strong taxi unions
✔️ Powerful local taxi operators
✔️ In some countries, even mafia was involved
None of the old players wanted Uber, and they made it clear. But Uber didn’t stop.
Instead Uber decided to fight fire with fire.
When taxi drivers in France protested violently against Uber.
CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick directly encouraged Uber drivers to fight back.
He believed that scenes of attacks on Uber drivers would create public sympathy in Uber's favor.
Uber got crafty.
They operated alot in the grey area of taxi permissions and to avoid evidence leaks during police raids, Uber created a “kill switch.”
When they were raided by the authorities, just a single push of a button Uber HQ could instantly wipe evidence and cut access to all data.
This happened multiple times in several countries.
Uber also built a tool called Greyball.
If the app detected a user to be a police or regulator, they were shown a ghost version of Uber.
These customers only saw fake cars in the app. Rides were never accepted.
While rivals lobbied traditionally, Uber built a secret relationship with Emmanuel Macron.
At the same time as other politicians tried to block Uber in France, Macron privately texted with Uber executives.
He was claimed to have made behind-the-scenes deals.
In 2022, the Uber Files leak exposed everything.
✔️ Internal messages.
✔️ Hidden tactics.
✔️ Secret political influence.
Uber proved one thing:
✔️ A great product is never enough.
✔️ Product–market fit also needs a market willing to change.
✔️ And some times it takes time... or violence.
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