Uber faced a PR headache last Saturday as it failed to stop its services to and from New York's JFK Airport, resulting in a lot of hate from the public. The hashtag #DeleteUber emerged with many consumers pledging to delete the service.
It has been nearly six days since this faux pas took place, and the company is still alive and kicking. lyft has managed to cash in on Uber's mishap as the company is welcoming many former Uber customers with open arms.
Additionally, Lyft started an initiative that raised $1 million for the ACLU in a bid to overturn President Trump's executive order to ban immigrants from entering the country.
How many people actually got rid of the app?
The #DeleteUber campaign overtook Twitter and the rest of social media, but was it as successful as many had planned? The numbers are in and at least 200,000 users deleted their account, which is only 0.5% of the company's 40 million active monthly users. The figure isn't exactly as gargantuan as one would have hoped, but this figure will still prove to be a dent in the company's business in the long run.
Additionally, SimilarWeb -- a digital marketing company -- examined how the term #DeleteUber performed in web traffic. "Delete uber account" was the 12th most popular source for driving traffic in January 2017, while the term was only the 177th most popular one in December 2016. A website for deleting the app also performed significantly better than the previous year.
How does Uber compare to Lyft now?
We are now in February and consumers still need transportation. While many have switched over to Lyft, the fact remains that Uber is in more locations, making it the only form of transportation for people who don't live in large cities. As of the first few days of February, Uber is back on top, with the company taking back some of its customers and proving to still be the market favorite over Lyft. Ultimately, the #DeleteUber campaign made some noise, but it was more a public outcry than a campaign that actually caused Uber to take a serious hit.