Lyft accused Uber employees of making over 5,000 bogus requests on its app, and on Tuesday the company behind the on-demand car service app fired back, saying Lyft's employees have made nearly 13,000 of the very same requests.
CNN Money broke the first accusation Monday after Lyft provided it with data it says proves that 117 of Uber's employees booked and canceled 5,560 trips across multiple cities since October of last year. The canceled rides came in conjunction with an aggressive recruiting campaign in which Uber's recruiters took short rides with Lyft drivers to pitch them on switching their employment to Uber.
"It's unfortunate for affected community members that they have used these tactics, as it wastes a driver's time and impacts the next passenger waiting for that driver," said Lyft spokeswoman Erin Simpson. "We remain focused on growing the business faster than any competitor through better customer experience and innovation."
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On Wednesday, Uber struck back, making its own data dump, accusing Lyft of making 12,900 digital ding-dong ditch requests of its own.
"These attacks from Lyft are unfortunate but somewhat expected," said a statement from Uber,
CNet.com reported. "A number of Lyft investors have recently been pushing Uber to acquire Lyft. One of their largest shareholders recently warned that Lyft would 'go nuclear' if we do not acquire them. We can only assume that the recent Lyft attacks are part of that strategy."
Within hours, Lyft parried, saying "Once again Uber is deceiving the public, now with false allegations and an attempt to deflect from their illegal cancel campaign. Lyft has more than 100 investors, all of whom are extremely excited that Lyft is approaching IPO-level revenue. Our 'nuclear' strategy is continuing to take market share with 30 percent month-over-month growth, while building the strongest community of drivers and passengers."
Despite Lyft's boasting, Uber's valuation and operations dwarf those of Lyft. Uber is valued at $18.2 billion, and operates in 100 cities globally. Lyft claims to be a peer-to-peer ridesharing service, but many have accused it of being an on-demand car service like any other. It currently operates in 65 cities in the U.S.
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