Uber has been banned in Berlin.

Perhaps the offering should have used an umlaut (Über) to get across the idea of a superior user experience to locals (or at least to Heavy Metal fans), but that wouldn’t have solved the problem here.

I use Uber all the time to get around San Francisco, and I love it. However, I can understand why there has been local resistance in some cases to Uber’s global expansion, for example in France, Korea, and the UK. Of course, there has been issues in the U.S. too.

Such resistance is an example of the kind of stakeholder and regulatory considerations that international offerings need to consider in their plans. In fact, even if you’re not expanding globally (yet), the local market can offer challenges, as taxi app Hailo found out.

Knowing your market is critical.