【聯合報╱By FARHAD MANJOO╱莊蕙嘉譯】
Time for Uber to Grow Up, Fast
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In just four years , Uber has ignited a new global ride-sharing industry with the promise of transforming urban transportation and helping many people get by without owning cars.
But now the hot start-up is facing its toughest challenge yet — taming its most offensive impulses before its aggressive culture begins to turn off investors, employees and customers .
僅僅4年，優步靠著要扭轉都市交通，並幫助無車民眾移動的承諾，在全球創造出共乘的新興產業。
但現在，這家熱門的新創公司正面臨迄今最大的挑戰：在它主動出擊式公司文化嚇跑投資人、員工和顧客之前，放慢極具侵犯性的步調。
The recent revelation, reported by BuzzFeed, that an executive suggested investigating the private lives of journalists who criticize Uber was only the latest unflattering news about the company’s tactics .
Uber has grown into one of the most valuable start-ups in Silicon Valley, with outposts around the world. It has raised about $1.5 billion and is valued at more than $17 billion, with talk of a public offering.
BuzzFeed網站最近在報導中揭露，優步一名主管建議調查撰文批評優步的數名記者的私生活，而這只是這家公司近來諸多不討喜的策略之一。
優步已成長為矽谷最有價值的新創公司之一，在全球各地皆有據點。它已募資約15億美元，市值超過170億美元，據傳將公開上市。
Uber’s hard-charging culture may be characteristic of startups , but fostering such a culture can quickly become a losing proposition .
“The more stories that come out about Uber behaving badly — whether it’s about the way it competes with rivals or the fact that an executive discussed looking into journalists — the risk is that it starts to become the main story about the company, rather than the great service it provides or its low prices,” said Jan Dawson, an industry analyst.
優步的強硬出擊式文化也許是新創企業的一個特色，但鼓勵這種文化，可能很快就會將企業導向失敗之途。
產業分析師道森說：「關於優步的負面傳聞越來越多－－不論是它如何和對手競爭，或是一名主管討論要挖記者底細－－風險是，外界對這家公司的主要描述開始變成這些傳聞，而不是它提供的優質服務或低廉的價格。」
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, made an apologetic series of posts on Twitter regarding the executive, Emil Michael, who made the comments about journalists. Mr. Michael’s future with the company was not mentioned.
Technology companies live and die by culture; ultimate success or failure is determined less by technological prowess than by the values and behavior of people who work there.
This may be particularly true for Uber : It owns no cars, its drivers are at-will contractors who can easily switch to rival services, and its customers are just one tap away from some other service.
優步主管麥可表示要調查記者底細一事，執行長卡蘭尼克已在推特發表一連串貼文道歉。麥可在這家公司的前途則未被提及。
科技公司因文化而生，也因文化而亡。最終的成敗取決於公司員工的價值觀和行為，而非科技上的高超與否。
這個論點對優步而言格外真確。它沒有車輛，駕駛出於自願而簽約，隨時能轉換到對手公司；且客戶只要按個鍵，就能改用其他業者的服務。
Uber has recently been dogged by accusations of various sorts. Last New Year’s Eve, a driver hit an immigrant family in San Francisco, killing a 6-year-old and leading to a wrongful-death lawsuit . There have also been several accusations of drivers sexually assaulting passengers. Some drivers have protested over their wages and working conditions. And this summer, The Verge reported that Uber was waging a campaign to recruit drivers from its rival, Lyft .
Mr. Kalanick later told Vanity Fair magazine that he also tried to crimp Lyft’s fund-raising by calling venture capitalists and telling them that anyone who invested in Lyft could be blackballed from investing in Uber.
優步近來被各種指控纏身。去年除夕夜，一名駕駛在舊金山撞上一移民家庭，導致一名6歲兒童死亡，因此吃上過失致死官司。多項指控顯示駕駛曾性侵乘客。部分駕駛曾因薪水和工作條件而抗議。今年夏季時網路媒體Verge報導，優步積極展開行動，從對手Lyft挖角駕駛。
之後卡蘭尼克接受浮華世界雜誌訪問時表示，他也在阻撓Lyft募資，打電話給創投資本家說，任何人投資Lyft就可能成為優步的拒絕往來戶，不讓他投資優步。
Some passengers have worried whether the company protects riders’ privacy — whether an employee can track where you went, and with whom. Uber says it has a policy forbidding employees and drivers from checking into riders’ habits.
Still, the new revelations could increase that fear. The idea that a senior executive thought it would be fine to reveal a plan for spying makes you wonder if anything is considered off-limits at Uber — and that may be the sort of worry that apologetic tweets can’t fix.
一些乘客對於這家公司能否善盡保護乘客個資之責不無疑慮：員工可追蹤乘客和誰去了哪裡。優步表示，有條款禁止員工和駕駛探查乘客的搭車習慣。
新的傳聞使這分恐懼加深。某一高階主管竟然認為對外透露調查記者的計畫無何不可，令人懷疑優步是否有任何覺得不能做的事，而這樣的憂慮只怕不是道歉推文就能消除的。
“Uber today is at the stage where Facebook was several years ago — they’re growing ridiculously fast, and we’re all wondering whether this will be the moment that they see they need to make a change,” said Mark Rogowsky, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has followed the battle between Lyft and Uber.
He added, “We just don’t know yet.”
矽谷企業家羅戈斯基一直在觀察Lyft和優步間的競爭，他說：「優步現正處於臉書數年前的狀態－－成長快得離譜，我們都想知道是不是到了他們發覺需要改變的時刻。」
他補充道：「但我們真還不知道。」
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