Uber is unable to retain its new drivers, says report
Uber, whose co-founder Travis Kalanick recently resigned due to investors' pressure, is going to have more trouble ahead as a recent report cited that the firm's retention rates for new drivers in America have gone down significantly during the period between January and May. The situation, if not remedied, may lead to an acute shortage of drivers in the future. Here's all about it.
What were the parameters of the study
TechCrunch was given the analysis of the Uber driver app by analytics firm Apptopia, which discovered that the 30-day user retention of the app among American drivers has come down to 47% during the aforementioned period. The firm collated data based on the number of users who opened the app for a meaningful period of time, signifying engagement against app deletions and stagnancy.
What did they find out
Analysts at Apptopia noticed that there has been a 20% increase in downloads of the driver app during the same period, which indicates that Uber was able to generate initial interest from the new drivers, prompting them to download the app. After that, it seems that the drivers lost interest and they either deleted the app or the app remained unused on their phones.
How did it get the data?
Although Apptopia doesn't get usage data from Uber, the firm gathers data from a network of 250,000 apps to which it has developer account access and then the company makes use of an algorithmic framework to come to its conclusions, which involve incorporating public signals such as App Store reviews. According to this data, the drop was more severe from the month of April.
What might have led to this?
The reason for the low retention rate can't be clearly ascertained; it's possible that Uber drivers have grown to be wary of the company following its several internal turmoils, which repeatedly became public. Also, Uber, until recently, didn't have an in-app tipping feature like its competitor Lyft and drivers might have been dissatisfied with lower pay rates from Uber pool rides too.
New users are balancing out departures
Apptopia also said that monthly usage of US Uber riders has not been disrupted by the #deleteuber social campaign which urged people to delete the Uber app to show dissent against the various scandals that it's gotten itself into during past few months. Several people deleted the app; however with the advent of new users on the platform, it didn't take a severe hit.
