​Lyft rolls out to 54 more US cities in Uber blitz

From CNET: Lyft is making a play to catch up to rival Uber.

The ride-hailing company announced Thursday that it's expanding to more than 50 additional US cities. This is Lyft's largest expansion yet, bringing the total number of cities it's in to nearly 300.

"In just the first two months of 2017, we've introduced Lyft to nearly 100 new cities, thanks in large part to today's launch," said Jaime Raczka, Lyft's head of early stage markets and expansion. "We look forward to continuing this rapid momentum."

While still second to Uber, which is in more than 450 cities worldwide, Lyft is gaining on its competitor. Uber has recently experienced a bad past couple of weeks, losing tens of thousands of customers who've joined a #DeleteUber campaign that won't seem to end.

First, users ditched Uber for Lyft a couple of weeks ago because they perceived Uber as not doing enough to speak out against President Donald Trump's immigration ban. And then, on Sunday, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler alleged that she and other female employees at the company were sexually harassed while working at the company.

Uber has done major damage control on both of these issues. Company CEO Travis Kalanick called the immigrant ban "unjust," pledged to create a $3 million legal defense fund to help drivers with immigration and translation services, and quit Trump's advisory council. As for the sexual harassment claims, Uber has hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder to lead an internal investigation into the allegations.

View: Article @ Source Site