As Uber Crackdown In France Continues, Uber Downloads In France Reach Record Highs

We've been covering France's bizarre war against Uber, starting with last week's taxi driver riots in which they overturned Uber cars, set fires, and held drivers and passengers hostage. This was followed by a bizarre caving in by the French government, who didn't go after the taxi drivers for their actions, but rather declared that Uber should be stopped and told law enforcement to seize the cars of Uber drivers. And, yesterday it went up a notch with two top Uber execs in France getting arrested and accused of the horrible crime of "inciting illegal employment" in a country where the unemployment rate continues to rise.

We keep pointing out that the public really seems to like Uber, so this crackdown seems rather bizarre. And, not so surprisingly, it seems to only be creating that much more interest in Uber in France, with the service reaching a record high in downloads since this all went down.

So I decided to take a look at Uber downloads in France, to see what happened during the strike. Not surprisingly, they spiked. In fact, Uber last Thursday was the second-monst downloaded iPhone app in France, which was the first time that had ever happened. Then, on Friday, it hit the top spot.

As Uber has discovered in the past, controversy can be great marketing. But it really makes you wonder what French politicians think they're doing here. Yes, there are some people who really hate Uber, but the public certainly seems to find the service to be pretty damn valuable.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story