The Ministry of Transport has issued notifications to suspend the action of ride hailing services, Uber and Careem one day after they were declared illegal by the Provincial Transport Authority of Punjab.
Careem originally joined the Pakistani market in 2015 with steady success, but the ride-hailing craze reached another level when the world famous app, Uber, joined the lucrative Pakistani market a year later to compete with Careem. Since then, the popularity of both services has been increasing sharply among regular people.
People have started relying heavily on both services for daily use. As such, it isn’t surprising to see people expressing their frustration about the ban through social media. Many people took to Twitter to explain how the availability of Uber and Careem was a big plus for them.
This bus cleared the safety check and is legal ,
But we bans #Careem and #Uber coz its illegal.
Courtesy: Civilian of Karachi pic.twitter.com/A04PCT8TgQ— Bilal Akbar Laghari (@laghari_bilal) January 31, 2017
I can confirm proper permission was taken from CM Shehbaz Sharif b4 banning Uber, Careem Cab Service
Shame on #PMLN for anti-people policies— Ahmad Noorani (@Ahmad_Noorani) February 1, 2017
Such pathetic transportation is acceptable in this country but not #Careem & #uber
Shame on who made such decisions pic.twitter.com/rd6VexJJbc— Ameer Abbas (@ameerabbas84) February 1, 2017
No I don’t accept the ban on #Careem & #Uber.These services must continue & the govt. should cater to public’s demand @CareemPAK @Uber_PKR
— Kiran Raza (@kiranraza_01) January 31, 2017
The team at DSU Media Lab used InsideTrends to check Pakistani twitter accounts for the public’s sentiments on #uber and #careem. Here’s what they found.
As seen by the pie chart provided by InsideTrends, tweets about Careem are generally in the mid-range; with 28% of neutral tweets, 48% of weak positives (likely to be praise for the service in the current crisis) and 24% weak negatives.
A similar trend can be noticed in the sentiment pie chat for Uber. This time though, the three pieces seem to be more equally divided. It’s important to note that negative tweets with the hashtag Uber and Careem are more of frustrated remarks about the government than the services themselves. Here once again, the largest number of people (37%) are in support of Uber with a large chunk choosing to not take sides at all.
It is important to note that both of these services have not been banned yet, but rather given a one-month time to comply with the laws of the government. Having such services could be blessings in disguise for the common man, but at the same time could provide the government with losses.
What do you think of the government’s decision? Let us know in the comments!
Initiative by DSU MediaLab and powered by insidetrends.
Recent Comments