As Uber drove into PR hole, Lyft steps on gas

Lyft announces big expansion plans across US

When management upheaval, allegations of corporate espionage, and revelations of sexual harassment sent Uber into a public relations sinkhole, its long overshadowed rival Lyft shifted into overdrive.

The company seized the opportunity to recruit disillusioned drivers so it could be more responsive to passengers searching for a ride-hailing alternative to Uber. It upgraded its smartphone app, stepped up marketing efforts to attract more riders and expanded its USonly service into 160 more cities for a total of about 350.

On Thursday, Lyft made a big expansion move by announcing that it is adding statewide coverage to 32 states, bringing its total to 40.

The aggressive tactics cast the much smaller Lyft in a new light. After five years of being content in its role as the fun-loving, pink-mustached underdog of ride hailing, Lyft is proving to be a wily

After five years of being content in its role as the fun-loving, pink-mustached underdog of ride hailing, Lyft is proving to be a wily opportunist and a more imposing threat to Uber

opportunist and a more imposing threat to Uber.

But a huge chasm still separates the foes in terms of financial resources, ridership and breadth of operations. While Lyft’s rides are in the millions per year and only in the US, Uber makes 10 million trips per day worldwide and has carried more than 5 billion passengers in over 80 countries since 2009. Uber has raised nearly $14 billion in capital since its inception, compared with Lyft’s $2.6 billion.

For its part, Uber is doing all it can to keep its lead. The company this week hired Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as its top executive. And while it concedes that this year’s missteps have slowed its growth, it says ridership is still rising because customers value the service. It’s in the midst of selfproclaimed “180 days of change” in an effort to alter a culture that fostered rapid growth but also encouraged bad behavior.

Yet the ground that Lyft has been gaining can’t be ignored. By the time Uber’s board ousted abrasive CEO Travis Kalanick in June, Lyft had more than doubled its ridership from the first six months of last year. At the end of June, it had passed 2016’s full-year ride total of 162.5 million.

To be sure, Lyft already was growing fast before Uber went into selfdestruct mode. Lyft’s share of the US ride-hailing market in the past two years grew at double the rate of Uber.