As a startup community we love to frame Uber as an agile startup, beating down bureaucracy and disrupting an industry which hasn’t seen innovation in decades. And in the process, enabling drivers to set their own hours and freeing them from the shackles of employment.

And Uber itself revels in this type of coverage. Posting articles about the regulatory hurdles it facts, protests from entrenched drivers, and how it’s creating jobs. I’ve heard very polished PR people on various news bulletins explaining how they’re battling for the consumer and the driver. Of course they’re really battling for their investors against their competitors, but that goes unsaid.

But the reality is that Uber shareholders want to own the taxi market. Uber wants its drivers to remain drivers forever - there will be no scope for a driver to work hard, save money, and set up his own competitive taxi business with other drivers. Co-operatives? Nope. Uber wants to eliminate taxi businesses and own the market. What opportunities will there be for an Uber driver to progress? Very little. Instead of a taxi business with one or two local, comparatively wealthy owners and 20-200 drivers, there’ll be an uber-business, with 25 super-rich owners, and 20,000-50,000 drivers. That’s just further concentration of wealth. It’s probably inevitable, but I feel it’s also unacknowledged.