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BRASILIA, Nov 7 (Reuters): Uber Technologies Inc has formed an unprecedented alliance in Brazil with other ride-hailing services, including its main local rival 99, to win public support to block regulation threatening the way they do business in a booming market.
Despite dominating the sector in Brazil, Uber has joined forces with three smaller apps for a public campaign that helped convince senators last week to scrap parts of a bill that would have effectively turned the companies into regular taxi services.
With Uber facing a possible ban in London and several US federal investigations, the company's new Chief Executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, needed a win in Brazil. The South American country is its second-largest market after the United States and Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic capital, has more Uber rides than New York.
Together with Spain's Cabify and Brazilian apps 99 and Lady Driver - which focuses on women drivers and customers - Uber recruited digital influencers and flooded social media with messages asking their users to call their lawmakers.
Under the slogan "Together for Mobility," the apps got thousands of their drivers onto the streets of Brazil's cities in protest, while the country managers of Uber, 99 and Cabify made a video together warning Brazilians that ride-hailing was in danger of being suffocated by red tape.
The collaboration with competitors may be an early sign of Khosrowshahi's strategy of fighting unwanted regulation with a less confrontational approach than his outspoken predecessor Travis Kalanick.
"We called on drivers and users to mobilize by gathering signatures in support of alternative regulation for the apps," said Fabio Sabba, chief spokesman for Uber in Brazil, adding that 816,000 people signed the petition presented to Congress.
In their amended bill, senators dropped requirements that drivers own their cars and use the same red licence plates used by public taxis, though they left a ban on rides outside the city where the car is registered.