Uber lose over $1billion in market value after 6,000 sexual assaults reported

Uber lost over $1 billion in market value after the ride-sharing app released details of 6,000 sexual assaults connected to Uber in the last two years.

The ride-sharing company saw shares fall 2.76% to $27.86 by the close of day on Friday 6 December. 

The US company published an 84-page ‘Safety Report’, which focused on several safety aspects connected to the Uber service.

The report was based on statistics in the US for the last two years in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, 2,936 reported incidents of sexual assault were recorded, compared to 3,045 in 2018. That means on average eight reports of sexual assault were reported each day connected to Uber’s ride-hailing service.

The detailed 84-page document is broken down into categories of sexual assault. In 2018, there were 235 reported cases of ‘Non-Consensual Sexual Penetration’ recorded, compared to 229 the previous year. Whilst there was an increase in number of reports, it did represent a decrease in frequency of the incidents reported, as the number of Uber rides rose from 1blllion to 1.3billion during the same time period.

Uber states in the report that the vast majority (99.9%) of Uber trips end without any safety-related issue at all.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, said via a series of posts on social media: “Doing the right thing means counting, confronting, and taking action to end sexual assault. My heart is with every survivor of this all-too-pervasive crime. Our work will never be done, but we take an important step forward today.

“I suspect many people will be surprised at how rare these incidents are; others will understandably think they’re still too common. Some people will appreciate how much we’ve done on safety; others will say we have more work to do. They will all be right.

“In the long run, we will be a better company for taking this step today—because I firmly believe that companies who are open, accountable, and unafraid are ultimately the companies that succeed.”