To Make Amends, Uber Looks Ahead, and Facebook Looks Back
*By Madison Alworth*
Uber's new [national TV ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZyw5lPKgE) doesn't tout new services or offer limited-time discounts. This minute-long video makes a solemn promise, from Uber's new CEO himself, Dara Khosrowshahi, "to always do the right thing."
It's part of Uber's effort since Khosrowshahi took over last August to present the company as a better, more caring corporate citizen of the world. After years of bad news about Uber's cutthroat strategy to grow at any cost, this ad represents a carefully crafted pivot.
"I do think its effective," said Jon Swartz, a senior reporter at Barron's. "I actually think of it as kind of a State of the Union address from Dara."
Khosrowshahi inherited from the founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick a company dealing with investor lawsuits, a federal investigation into stolen trade secrets, and software used to hide its vehicles from law enforcement. Not to mention an incriminating video of Kalanick [berating an Uber driver](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-uber-ceo-argues-with-driver-over-falling-fares). The advertisement serves as a reset of public expectations.
"I think what Dara is doing is really, really good," said Swartz. "In fact, what he's doing is he's starting his administration, so to speak, on a positive angle."
Uber is not the only company looking to publicly make amends for past transgressions. Facebook has also released an advertisement, ["Here Together,"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zd7X98eOs) which promises a return to what users may have first liked about Facebook.
Swartz said the Facebook ad is different from Uber's because the social media company is in a different stage of the so-called public apology tour.
"The difference between the two is that Uber is trying to take a first wave of the new administration and set a precedent," Swartz said in an interview Thursday on Cheddar. "While Facebook is kind of retrenching and trying to correct what has been a problem and what will continue to probably be a problem when we hear about other data breaches or problems that occur there."
It remains to be see how the public ー and investors ー will respond to the companies' new promises.
"I think there's this general sense that tech is not well liked throughout the rest of the country," Swartz said, adding that these ads cold have a broad impact with consumers who have impressions of the companies shaped by what they hear as much as what they experience.
"You're resetting the company and its expectations, because again, in Silicon Valley, the companies are reflected by their CEOs," Swartz said. "That's the personality of the company, whether good, or bad, or indifferent."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/silicon-valley-is-sorry).
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The two tech- billionaires Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are the latest voices to discuss the new hypothetical internet called Web 3.0. According to the billionaires, the new concept is just a "marketing buzzword" and cannot exist without venture capitalists or large backing. However, advocates of the Web 3.0 believe this decentralized space is the next big thing to help put ownership back into the hands of the people. Senior News Editor at The Verge, Richard Lawler, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
This year, the games market will generate total revenues of $180.3 billion dollars, a significant increase from 2020. While the industry continues to grow and expand into new spaces, such as the metaverse, there is still plenty of room for growth and reform in this male-dominated market. Katie Robinson, content creator, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss plans for the future even as COVID-19 upended Barstool's sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl featuring the Boise State Broncos and the Central Michigan Chippewas due to the spreading omicron variant. "In our case as a company, coronavirus has been a big boom for us," she noted. "We've been able to create a lot of new programming, launch a lot of different personalities, and frankly take share from traditional media, and that's what we've done the entire pandemic." While she admitted to taking a hit on the canceled Bowl game, live events aren't completely off the table for Barstool in 2022. Nardini also talked about potential sports betting expansion following its partnership with Penn National Gaming.
Interest in the concept of the metaverse is heating up as more companies get on board, and Cathy Hackl, CEO of Futures Intelligence Group, a metaverse-focused consultancy, joined Cheddar to talk about trends to watch out for in 2022 and what it will take for it to be more than just a buzzword. Hackl noted that businesses likely will have to consider big technology upgrades in the upcoming year in order to keep up. "We're going to need new levels of computing power to be able to enable shared virtual experiences, both in VR but also in augmented reality," she said.
Ron Gutman, Co-CEO of Intrivo, joins Cheddar News to discuss how the company is creating a test and tech solution for Covid testing called 2Gather, and how it's using data-driven digital diagnostics to make these tests widely available and affordable.
The metaverse took the world by storm in 2021 and it is just the beginning of the virtual universe. Consumers are jumping on board and companies like Meta and Roblox are already taking advantage. Entrepreneur Andrew Duplessie joined Cheddar to discuss how the metaverse will impact the future of socialization and business. "If I'm doing anything right now, I'm building an app, I'm jumping into that ecosystem, and I'm testing it. I'm seeing what people think," he said.
