The chief executive of the controversial online ride-sharing company, Uber, promised to create 50,000 new jobs in 2015 across Europe in cities that are willing to make deals with his firm.
"We want to make 2015 the year where we establish a new partnership with EU cities," Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick said to attendees at the DLD conference in Munich, Germany's largest annual gathering of media and tech leaders, according to Reuters.
The four-year-old company, which allows users to summon taxi-like services by using their smartphones, continues to expand into more than 250 cities around the world, despite all the problems the service has caused so far.
Uber has been hit with court injunctions in places like Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain for violating taxi licensing rules, according to Reuters. The company offers a range of local transportation options in Europe, from professional limousine services to informal ride-sharing options.
Kalanick said that his company has created "thousands" of full-and part-time driving jobs in places where the app is allowed to run. He told mayors who reach deals to free up Uber's service to operate that Uber can provide "10,000 jobs in four years."
"At the end of 2015, if we can make these partnerships happen, we create 50,000 new EU jobs," he said, during the event, referring to the equivalent number of full-time jobs.
Uber's mobile phone app is so popular because it connects private drivers to passengers looking for local rides and in a timely fashion, according to Reuters.
Uber is now the most highly valued venture-backed start-up in the world, worth nearly $41 billion. The San Francisco-based company has faced court injunctions and regulatory scrutiny ever since its early days, more recently coming under fire for its response to questions over if the company has enough safeguards set up to make sure passengers are safe to use its services.
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