Uber’s latest marketing ploy: Leave Lyft, come work for us, and we’ll give you $500.
The San Francisco-based transportation company is offering $500 to drivers from competing services like Lyft and Sidecar just for making one trip on UberX.
“With ever-increasing demand, greater trips per hour, and new cities launching every day, drivers on Uber make more money than with any other ridesharing platform or taxi company. Period,” Uber wrote in a blog post. “We’re so confident in that fact, we’re giving new partners from other ridesharing platforms $500 just to try us out.”
Uber is also giving $500 to its drivers who refer another driver from a competing platform to Uber. The company previously enticed drivers of Lyft, Uber’s main competitor, back in December when it offered them free $50 gas gift cards and sign-up bonuses.
Both Uber and Lyft have grown massively in the past few years. Lyft recently launched in 24 more cities, making it the biggest rides-on-demand platform in the U.S. — UberX is in 47 cities, Lyft now in 60 — while Uber just opened up service in its 100th city worldwide.
But the companies, which allow everyday drivers to shuttle people around town with their personal cars, have faced several legal roadblocks along the way. In Seattle, Uber and Lyft poured in more than $400,000 to a coalition that garnered enough petitions to suspend a newly-passed ordinance regulating their companies. Mayor Ed Murray is now trying to reach a new agreement between the startups and taxi drivers, but if nothing is on the table by the end May, Murray said he’ll issue a cease-and-desist letter to Lyft, UberX and Sidecar.
Previously: Protestors attack Uber vehicles in Seattle, vow to take down a ‘disgusting tech company’
