Uber's Italian country manager faced death threats and public harassment from taxi interests opposed to the company's entry. The taxi mafia posted flyers calling for her death, hung banners accusing her of an affair with a taxi commissioner, and displayed signs outside her apartment building. It shows the violent resistance foreign companies encounter from entrenched local interests.
So we had a female manager of the country who was Italian. We tried to hire local people, right? Who knew the politics, the culture of the place and so on. And she was from a prominent family, well known, all this. And they put posters around the city suggesting that people kill her. And she lived in an apartment. They went up to her apartment and pulled a sign from her apartment across the road. To the next apartment. So it was like in the street, like a banner saying that this person had, uh, you know, had an affair with the, with the taxi commissioner or something like that, who was permitting Uber to exist. So imagine the fear that would cause in anybody. Um, if people were willing to go to that length in your own city to put posters on the wall. So that was, that was some tough stuff.
