'uber' Tag

  • There’s a new « mot de buzz » in town

    March 24, 2016

    Maybe it’s because I was out of France for 8 of the past 11 weeks, but it feels like there’s a new buzzword in the air: Ubérisation It’s difficult to open a French website without the seeing the word in a headline; journalists cannot get enough of it. One would be forgiven for thinking that […]

  • Introducing the French Taule Ticket

    July 1, 2015

    [credits: Junjie Peng for the artwork; the French taxi union for the motivation; the French government for the inspiration]

  • Calling all cars: Please return to base immediately.

    May 26, 2015

    On Friday France’s Conseil Constitutionnel, the country’s judicial authority, announced its long-awaited ruling on Uber’s objections to the Loi Thévenoud. For a quick recap, the Thévenoud Law (named after Thomas Thévenoud, former secretary of state who left the cabinet in a tax scandal last year) aims to handicap innovative on-demand transport companies like Uber and […]

  • The flaw in Uber’s surge-pricing algorithm

    January 21, 2014

    Last week witnessed a lot of excitement around chauffered car services in France. On Monday Paris taxi drivers held a general strike, blocking airports and roads with their idle cars and in several incidents allegedly attacking competitive private car services. This comes on the heels of France’s introduction of its ’15-minute law’ designed to thwart […]

  • Pigeons don’t poop in private

    October 9, 2012

    Wow, it has been quite a week ! President François Hollande’s Socialist government unveiled its draft 2013 budget comprising some potentially devastating tax dis-incentives for entrepreneurs and VCs. A revolt ensued, with the birth of the Pigeon Movement, an explosion of emotion on social media sites, worldwide media attention, and the culmination of a dialogue […]