Uber Unloads, Reddit Reloads, Prime Inroads & Other Must-Reads

Today in Uber: Trouble on both coasts for the car service — an administrative law judge in California has fined the company $7.3 million for “refusing to give state regulators information about its business practices, including accident details and how accessible vehicles are to disabled riders,” writes KRON reporter Mario Sevilla.

Uber says it has provided quite enough material, thank you very much. But judges tend to have the upper hand in these matters.

They may be on the defense on the West Coast, but in New York, Uber is playing offense. They are unloading on Mayor Bill de Blasio for proposing a bill that would cap the number of licenses given to ride-hailing vehicles.

The New York campaign includes TV ads that the ASPCA would be proud of. Uber wouldn’t say what the spend is, reports Dan Rivoli of The New York Daily News, but allowed as it’s “substantial.” I saw the ad several times in a few hours watching CNBC, which is a smart target audience for the $41 billion pre-IPO unicorn.

The centerpiece of the campaign, however, is a new “de Blasio” tab on the Uber app, which is meant to strike terror in the hearts of New Yorkers BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE NO UBERS AVAILABLE if Hizonner gets his way, the company contends. “This is what Uber will look like ...” the innocent, ride-less customer is told in classic “It would be a shame if …” mob speak.

It’s unclear what, if anything, will change in NYC. But in Cali, Uber has 30 days to comply and pay up, or its operating license will be suspended.

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Prime is the new Black: There was plenty of griping about the offerings — Hey, it’s the Internet. But by a number of measures that matter, Amazon’s Prime Day Wednesday as a shopping festival to rival Black Friday was a big success, Jonathan Crew reports for Fortune. Specifically:

• 34.4 million items sold (398 items per second) — both sales records.
• Orders 266% up for the day YoY — No biggie.
• Orders 18% above Black Friday 2014 – Biggie.
• More new trial Prime memberships “than on any other day in Amazon history” (alas, as is the company’s wont, no details there)

WalMart did pretty good in its a counter-offensive, but a quick analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence (shared with Fortune) indicates that it was at the expense of Q2 margins. Amazon says “we’ll definitely be doing this again.”

#Chart

#RedditRevised: Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, recently returned as CEO, is proposing new guidelines for the Reddit community. The rules would “effectively ban spam, illegal activity and harassment, as well as the posting of ‘private or confidential information’ and sexual content involving minors,” reports Mike Isaac of The New York Times.

It’s the latest gambit to wrangle bad behavior. Previous attempts to burnish the brand have been met with strong backlash by a community that is strongly encouraged to think they are the brand.

Mike Isaac of The New York Times says this time it’s especially dicey:

Mr. Huffman is walking into Reddit at a crisis moment. Ms. Pao resigned last week after a wave of criticism from Redditors over the sudden dismissal of a well-liked Reddit employee who had been a liaison between the company and the community. Prominent staff members have departed and the community is wary of any drastic changes that might made by management.

If Huffman does figure out how to manage trolling without destroying Reddit, it will be the kind of lore that actually does merit return-of-the-founder comparisons to Steve Jobs.

#Quote

Balancing free expression with privacy and the protection of participants has always been a challenge for open-content platforms on the Internet. But that balancing act is getting harder. The trolls are winning.

— Ellen Pao, the former interim CEO of Reddit.

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The Sharing Economy for Road Warriors: Business travelers are increasingly using sharing economy resources over traditional services like taxis and hotels, according to a new study.

Uber overtook taxies in Q2, reports Certify, which markets expense report software and examined the receipts of its customers (rental cars use declined, but was still the #1 choice).

Airbnb is still a small player in the business travel lodging game, but saw a 143% gain over Q1 — that’s the previous quarter, not same time last year.

#Stat

79%

Uber’s share of total rides in San Francisco, per Certify

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You Win, or You Die: Hollywood is (maybe) not as cutthroat as Westeros, but winning is better wherever you hang your Valyrian Steel. And Game of Thrones, the HBO series based on George RR Martin's epic novels, was the big winner when the 67th Emmy Award nominations were announced. GoT garnered 24 nods — including its first for Best Drama Series — the lion’s share of HBO’s field-leading 126-nomination total. ABC is a distant second with 42. Netflix got 34 — three alone in the two Best Series categories — and Amazon instant video 12 — including another for 2014 winner Transparent. Here’s the complete list.

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 Miss the last update? Then check out … "Most Workers Are Employees," Netflix Growth Spurt, and Other Must-Reads 

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 Cover Art: A robotic dinosaur replaces human staff at the check-in counter at the Henna (“Weird”) Hotel in the Huis Ten Bosch, Netherlands themed amusement park in Sasebo, Japan. The hotel, scheduled to open July 17, features multi-lingual humanoid robots that greet visitors while others serve coffee and housekeeping and sports room locks that are opened by face-recognition technology. (Trevor Williams/WireImage)