The lesson Uber has taught me at scale is that if you break the law make sure you break a law that has perceived benefit to the people. Uber has the hearts and minds of the population because it's perceived as de-fucking the Taxi industry regardless of how it's gotten to where it is.
That is very true. Not only people do not go by themselves to learn who they're dealing with, they will ignore the negative stories if told - what matters is that taxis are considered expensive and crappy, while Uber is cheaper (and hot - at least within my social circle they won a lot by just marketing themselves as a startup!).
