translated from Spanish: Latin America already surpasses U.S. in number of journeys of über

the insecurity and the lack of a quality public transportation explain, among other reasons, the meteoric growth that Uber has experienced in Latin America, a regio n which already surpassed United States in number of trips, said a Senior Executive of the transport platform.
Regional director of über for Latin America, George Gordon, said in an interview with EFE in Panama that the company is present in more than 150 cities in 15 countries in the region and that the prospects for expansion are “very big”.
On 10 June, he recalled Gordon, the born signature makes eight years in San Francisco completed 10,000 million trips around the world, Latin America is the region with the largest number of simultaneous displacement and Rio de Janeiro, city of Mexico and Sao Paulo the three cities in the region with more trips.
“Latin America for us, as a company, is one of the most important regions together with United States. At this time in number of trips it is already larger than the United States. It’s a very good moment,”said American Executive.
Über is available in most large Nations of the continent, with the exception of Venezuela, where it has no planned landing “in the short term” because of the socio-economic landscape and the climate of violence prevailing in the country.
“I am not going to say don’t want us, it’s a market that we believe that our product can have great impact due to insecurity in the country, but for now is not among our plans”, acknowledged.
Insecurity is one of the major challenges facing über in the region. On Wednesday, a young Argentine denounced a platform driver for alleged rape after a trip made in the early morning in Buenos Aires.
The directors “deeply” regretted the facts and explained that the company is testing several innovations in some countries in the region to improve security, including “a the panic button that connects the driver and client with the authorities of the countries to address any incident”.
“The ‘app’ (application) allows also share your trip in real time with a family member so you go tracking you. We cannot solve the situation of insecurity that exists in Latin America, but if we can use the benefits of technology to mitigate it,”he added.
Über disembarked in Latin America in 2013, but its history has not been without controversy. The conflict with the sector of the cab, which accused the US company of unfair competition, is more alive than ever, just like in other parts of the world.
“We do not see the sector of the taxi as such direct competition, our direct competitor is the particular car. The vast majority of cars circulating in the cities are neither taxis nor über, are private cars. Congestion is by them, we have to convince people that park their vehicles,”he said.
Gordon said that Uber is the first interested in that technology platforms in transport are regulated, but always be with “modern” laws to respect the free interaction of supply and demand, and not establish limits of vehicles or restrictions on rates or schedules.
“The reality is that we have housewives who want to work only two hours after dropping off their children at school or workers who want to handle 30 hours a week and then take six weeks of rest. This flexibility is that people seek in über”, he insisted.
New York became the last week in the first big city to freeze for one year the issuance of licenses that use platforms like Uber, a “misguided” decision, according to the Executive”, and hopes that it is not replicated in Latin America.
“Technology generally tends to be rather more advanced than regulation and takes more time until the Governments understand the functioning of new industries,” he concluded.



Original source in Spanish

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