Uber's Reputation Has Taken a Major Hit

The past six months have been nothing short of terrible for Uber from a PR standpoint. First the company’s CEO Travis Kalanick drew criticism for joining then President-elect Trump’s economic advisory board in December, then #deleteUBER started trending on Twitter after the company had allegedly tried to profit from the chaos at U.S. airports after Trump had signed the first travel ban. To make things worse, the company also faced widespread criticism for promoting an aggressive, sexist corporate culture and finally got sued for allegedly stealing trade secrets from Google’s self-driving vehicle arm Waymo.

According to a recent survey published by management consulting firm cg42, all those negative headlines did leave a mark on Uber’s reputation. As our chart shows, the percentage of consumers with a negative perception of the world’s most valuable startup jumped from 9 to 27 percent in response to the news stories. To make things worse, these stories have been the main reason for people to stop using Uber in the past six months.