Uber office raided by police in China, accused of running ‘illegal’ car business

Uber’s office in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was raided by authorities last night, according to a number of Chinese media outlets.

Photos of the nighttime raid show police officers and officials from Guangzhou’s public security bureau (PSB), the Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC), and the municipal traffic commission confiscating phones and other equipment. Guangzhou Daily, a local paper, obtained photos of the Uber raid (pictured above; as posted on the paper’s affiliated Dayoo news site).

Uber is accused of running an “illegal” transport service, according to the Guangzhou Daily. The US-based startup, which first expanded to China in August 2013, is suspected of not having the proper qualifications to run a private care business in the city. In Guangzhou, Uber offers UberBlack, UberX, and UberXL.

We’ve contacted Uber in China for details but have yet to hear back. It’s not clear if Uber’s drivers are operating in Guangzhou today. (Updated: A representative from Uber states, “Uber prides itself on providing efficient and convenient transportation options for riders to get from point to point, helping cities reduce congestion pollution. We have maintained open channels of communications and are working closely with local authorities in cooperation.”)

Not the kind of picture uber wants of its Guangzhou office pic.twitter.com/dPK67N5jRf

— Bill Bishop (@niubi) April 30, 2015

Uber (valued at US$40 billion after its most recent funding) operates in a legal grey area in most of the countries that it expands to – and even in parts of its home nation. Before smartphones and Uber came along, such a car service would have been deemed illegal and unlicensed, branded as a “private hire” or a “black” car service that may not solicit on the streets and can only accept pre-arranged requests for things like airport pick-ups. That’s what’s causing Uber’s legal potholes on roads around the world.

China’s top search engine, Baidu, invested in Uber in December, but Uber’s China partner doesn’t seem to be able to make Uber’s legal woes go away.

See: Silicon Valley’s major weakness: it can’t handle politics in Asia

(Source: Dayoo; via Sinocism‘s Bill Bishop on Twitter)