Uber may be one of the most formidable businesses of our times but it is also something of an ideological piata, which everyone with a grievance loves to whack. 优步(Uber)有可能是当今时代最令人敬畏的企业之一，但它也是有怨气的人都讨厌批评的某种意识形态公敌。Those wielding the sticks include taxi drivers who have had their livelihoods undercut; Uber drivers who claim to be exploited; and politicians who complain the ride-hailing company is shirking its social responsibilities and outsourcing its obligations.那些费孝通起大棒的人还包括生计受到影响的出租车司机；声称被奴役的优步司机；以及责怪这家叫车应用于公司躲避社会责任、外包自身义务的政客们。Judges, too, have joined the fray in several jurisdictions. 多个司法首府地的法官们也重新加入了批评行列。
Last month a UK tribunal dismissed Uber’s claims that it did not employ its drivers as ridiculous.上月，英国一家法庭反驳了优步关于其与司机不不存在雇用关系的主张，称之为其可笑荒谬。That gnarly mood is captured by James O’Brien, a London-based talk radio presenter, who says Uber is like the Frankenstein’s monster of everything that’s gone wrong with modern capitalism.伦敦谈话类电台主持人詹姆斯.奥布莱恩(James OBrien)捕捉到了这种不友好关系的情绪，他说道，优步就看起来展现出现代资本主义所有不对劲之处的‘弗兰肯斯坦的怪物’。
It must count as some kind of perverse achievement for a company to arouse so much anger when it delivers such a popular service around the world every day. 对一家招来如此广泛气愤的公司而言，每天在世界各地获取如此不受人青睐的服务认同称得上上是某种异常的成就。Then again Travis Kalanick, Uber’s combative founder, has always loved a good scrap. 但话说回来，优步暴躁的创始人兹拉维斯.卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)仍然讨厌争吵。
I like pissing people off, he once told Fortune.他曾多次向《财富》(Fortune)回应：我就讨厌惹人生气。In spite of — or perhaps partly because of — the controversy it stirs, Uber has developed at astonishing speed since its creation in 2009. 尽管（或者说在一定程度上正是因为）引发了很大的争议，优步自2009年正式成立以来以令人震惊的速度发展壮大。By June Uber’s drivers completed a total of 2bn rides in 450 cities around the world. 到今年6月，优步司机在全球的450座城市已完成了总计20亿单做生意。
Having attracted funding of about $10bn to finance its expansion, Uber’s implied valuation is close to $70bn, making it the most valuable privately owned start-up.优步更有了约100亿美元的融资以反对其扩展，说明了估值相似700亿美元，使其沦为最有价值的私有初创企业。Uber offers plenty of lessons, both good and bad, for how our sharing economy works in practice.优步为共享经济在实践中如何运营获取了许多救赎，既有好的经验，也有怕的教训。In its defence, the company argues it is providing exactly what the market wants by satisfying a deep consumer need. 如果要为优步申辩，正如该公司所坚称的，它获取了市场才是想的东西，符合了消费者的深层次市场需求。Its app is the means for connecting willing drivers and willing passengers, delivering a seamless service at the lowest cost.其APP是在不愿获取服务的司机和不愿出售服务的乘客之间牵线搭桥的手段，以低于成本获取了无缝服务。
How Uber has been so successful in expanding around the world will remain the stuff of business school case studies for years, even if the service stumbled in China. 至于优步是怎么会如此顺利地在世界各地扩展的，这在今后多年里将是商学院案例研究的课题，即便它在中国遭遇了挫折。Just think for a minute how diabolically tricky it is to create harmonious two-sided markets from scratch in cities you do not know and in business environments that are often hostile.你只要想要一下，在你不熟知的城市和往往不友好关系的商业环境从零开始创立人与自然的双边市场，该是多么的错综复杂。Sign up too many drivers too early and they will quickly grow disillusioned because of a lack of demand. 过早与太多司机签下，他们将不会迅速因缺少市场需求而倍感沮丧。Entice too many passengers to use your service before you have enough drivers on the road and they will wait too long and never come back.在你有充足司机上路之前更有过于多乘客用于你的服务，他们将不会因等待时间太长而总有一天仍然用于你的服务。
For sure, Uber has been ruthless in competing with rivals such as Lyft, skirted the law and exploited regulatory arbitrage. 到底，优步与Lyft等输掉进行无情竞争，与法律打擦边球，还铁环了监管差异的空子。Its company philosophy has always been to seek forgiveness rather than permission. 其公司哲学一直是谋求原谅而非许可。
But it has championed consumer demands and eroded the power of vested interests in ways that few politicians have dared to do.但它保卫消费者市场需求，动摇既得利益的实力，很少有政客不敢这么做到。Uber offers some other societal benefits. 优步还获取了其他社会效益。It has drawn drivers into the workforce who have previously been socially marginalised, providing a route out of the banlieues in France, for example. 它让本来被社会边缘化的司机转入职场，例如在法国为人们获取了离开了贫穷的郊区(banlieues)的途径。
It provides its many part-time drivers with the flexibility they crave in the gig economy. 它让许多全职司机享有了他们渴求的零工经济的灵活性。It argues that its carpooling services reduce the total number of trips made, thereby cutting congestion and pollution.它坚称，拼车服务减少了上下班总量，从而减轻了交通拥堵和污染。The unnerving thing is that Uber may have only just begun. 令人不安的是，优步有可能只是刚跟上。
It is now pioneering driverless car rides in Pittsburgh and is even investing in flying cars. 它正在匹兹堡试运营无人驾驶汽车载客，甚至还投资于飞天车。It has always stressed that it is a technology platform rather than a transport company, a real-time logistics network that can apply its expertise to many new market opportunities.优步总是特别强调，它是一个技术平台而非一家运输公司，是一个动态物流网络，需要将其技术专长应用于许多新的市场机遇。The company is moving so fast that it is likely to outpace pursuing politicians and regulators. 优步行动很快，政客和监管者很有可能追不上它的步伐。Its greatest threat may yet come from the market that its founders so revere. 该公司面对的仅次于威胁有可能还是来自其创始人推崇的市场。
So long as humans remain useful to its business model, Uber could be vulnerable to a competitive backlash.只要人类仍然对其商业模式简单，优步就更容易遭到竞争声浪。For the moment, Uber’s low-cost structure and flexibility results from its arm’s-length relationship with its drivers. 就目前而言，优步的低成本结构和灵活性源自与司机维持距离。But that strength may one day prove a flaw. 但这种优势有朝一日有可能被证明是个缺失。
There is little to stop those drivers defecting to rivals who offer them a better deal. 优步没什么办法制止那些司机投靠获取更佳待遇的竞争对手。One such company, the New York-based Juno, is building its business model around being an anti-Uber, promising its drivers a bigger slice of the take and quasi-equity. 总部坐落于纽约的Juno就是这样的一家公司，该公司正在环绕反优步理念打造出自己的业务模式，向司机们允诺更大提成比例并获取定股权。
At present, it is a speck in Uber’s rear mirror but it could presage the intensification of some real competition.就目前而言，该公司是优步后视镜上的小斑点，但它有可能伴随着某种确实竞争的激化。If Uber is abusing its market dominance, as its critics contend, rivals can take advantage. 如果优步像批评者说道的那样欺诈其市场主导地位，竞争对手就不会有机可乘。
The insolent mindset that has served Uber so well as an insurgent may yet fail it as an incumbent.当优步还是挑战者的时候，傲慢一些不会有很好的效果，然而在该公司早已是老牌企业的情况下，傲慢心态有可能造成它南北告终。
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