Earlier this week, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned amidst ongoing pressure from the company’s investors. After months of turmoil and negative press surrounding the company, we wanted to see how the resignation affected consumers’ perception of Uber and its future. Here’s what we found over the past 24 hours since Kalanick’s resignation.
The majority of Americans are indifferent about Kalanick’s decision to resign. Among the 14% who were affected by the news, 64% are now less optimistic about the company. But those figures tell an incomplete story.
When we looked behind the numbers, we saw a different picture among Uber riders. Let’s look at our Kalanick question, crossed with our tracking question on Uber usage:
The “optimistic” crew is significantly more likely to come from the population of current Uber drivers. The “not sure” and unchanged group are, for the most part, not regular users of the service. I would view this as positive for the company – these are all potential future users who haven’t been tainted by the recent wave of bad PR. As Uber embarks on a new path, under new leadership, it seems that riders and non-riders alike are willing to give the company a chance.
