Uber says Taiwan scaring away investors

AFP

Uber warned Taiwan on Thursday that it was scaring away foreign investors as the ride-hailing app faces a potentially massive hike in fines for operating illegally on the island. The US company has been racking up fines since it entered the Taiwan market in 2013 for running a business without the proper registration to operate as a taxi service.
In the past Uber drivers have faced fines of around Tw$50,000 ($1,570) but the cabinet this month proposed a maximum penalty of Tw$25 million ($785,000) — the highest in the world, according to the company’s Taiwan general manager Likai Gu. Authorities have also asked Apple and Google to remove Uber’s app from their platforms but the government has yet to impose an outright ban on the company.
The moves “send a clear message to would-be startups to steer clear of Taiwan, deterring both local entrepreneurs and foreign investment,” Mike Brown, Uber’s Asia Pacific general manager, wrote in an open letter to President Tsai Ing-wen, published Thursday.
Brown said that existing regulations were a “poor fit for new technologies and business models”. Since taking office in May, Tsai has outlined plans to kickstart Taiwan’s economy, including making the island into an “Asian Silicon Valley” by encouraging and fostering start-up technologies. “We felt like we were making progress,” Uber’s Gu said in a phone interview, referring to the company’s meetings with officials before the shock proposal to raise fines.
He declined to comment on local media reports that the National Taxation Bureau of Taipei has ordered the company to pay Tw$135 million ($4.2 million) in back taxes and penalties. Despite the hurdles, the San Francisco-based firm launched its food delivery service UberEats in Taiwan on Tuesday. The US startup has expanded to more than 50 countries and is worth some $50 billion, but has faced multiple legal challenges and protests from traditional taxi drivers who feel they are being forced out of the market.