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Uber Booked Half the Theater For the Opening Night of a Play Inspired By the Scandals that Took Down Former CEO Travis Kalanick (businessinsider.com)
Uber booked more than half of the seats available for the London premiere of "Brilliant Jerks," a satirical play inspired by the car-ride startup's numerous scandals, and featuring a character similar to former CEO Travis Kalanick. From a report: The company purchased 50 of 90 available seats for the show's opening night at London's Vault theater, as originally reported by the Financial Times. The Financial Times reports that the play was inspired in part by the now-infamous blog post by Susan J. Fowler on Uber's toxic and sexist work culture, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led Kalanick to resign as chief executive of the company he cofounded. According to the Vault's website, "Brilliant Jerks tells the story of three people -- a driver, a coder, and a CEO -- working for one tech monolith, but living worlds apart."
That's cool -- they're funding a play that's mocking themselves, and the other half of the house is open. Not to mention that the empty seats can be re-sold after the show starts as no-shows. The theater can profit twice. Oh yeah, and screw Uber. Not for this, but for their business model. It's not ride-sharing or even self-driving cars. It's getting everyone into THEIR vehicles, and having the trip data tied to an identity. This data can then be easily sold to governments and marketeers.
... due to high demand for ride-shares that evening, most of the theater goers had to use Lyft.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
"Uber buys half of the tickets for mocking play, and gives tickets to employees!"