Battling brands online: Urgency and impact

Every new Uber revelation ignited a massive campaign against the company on Twitter and Facebook

Until last week, Travis Kalanick, a founder of Uber and its chief executive, ruled his company absolutely. That was the Silicon Valley way; ever since Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in the 1980s, tech founders have demanded, and been awarded, enormous deference by investors and corporate boards. So even as successive waves of scandal have hit Uber, Mr Kalanick’s position looked safe.

Then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. Amid many reforms, Mr Kalanick announced a leave of absence last week and late Tuesday said he was resigning as Uber CEO.

It is the swiftness of the fall that’s interesting here.