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But the company has been rocked by scandals. Uber drivers are fighting for their rights. And now a whistleblower has revealed the dark tricks Uber used to break into lucrative European markets.

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The leak reveals how undeclared meetings, high-level lobbying, and backroom deals helped Uber to get leading politicians to back their radical plans. The leaked documents cover the years Uber was trying to break into Europe and they show how much Uber was prepared to spend to get close to power. In 2016, its lobbying and public relations budget was $90 million (£75 million).

They also expose the shocking detail of how extensively Uber used secret technology to avoid justice and showed just how ruthless the company was prepared to be. The company’s steamroller tactics were evident in just about every European city it launched in, but nowhere more so than Paris, Amsterdam and London.

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The Parisian cab drivers were losing customers and income – and in 2014 took their protest to the streets. Taxi drivers attacked Ubers carrying terrified passengers, smashing their windows and slashing their tyres.

But Uber had a mantra, says MacGann: “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission”. Rather than bow to pressure, Uber pushed harder.

In February 2014 it launched a controversial new service called UberPop - called a “ride-sharing” service, it was the cheapest option on the app and like offering someone a lift.

UberPop drivers didn’t need to have a professional license or be insured as a taxi driver. It meant practically anyone with a car could become a cabbie, and many jumped at the chance.

At a stroke, taxi drivers had lost their advantage.

Uber immediately ran foul of the authorities, landing a €100,000 fine for misleadingly advertising the new service as a car pool. New legislation was being debated that would impose strict regulations on UberPop and similar ride-sharing services.

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By the summer, tensions peaked. Taxi drivers went on general strike, with protests sometimes turning violent, while government ministers called for the end of UberPop and for unlicensed drivers’ cars to be seized.

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But the years of taxi wars had also played into Uber’s narrative. In 2016, amidst more violent taxi demonstrations, the French government announced a clampdown on ride-sharing services.

In response, Travis Kalanick proposed a counter-protest. When an Uber executive flagged MacGann’s concern over the safety of Uber drivers and riders, Kalanick responded:

"If we have 50,000 riders they won't and can't do anything. I think it's worth it. Violence guarantee [sic] success."

Kalanick “viewed violence as something that brought results”, says Mark MacGann. “It’s dangerous. It’s irresponsible. It’s also, in a way, very selfish. Because he was not the guy on the street who is being threatened, who is being attacked.”

A spokesperson for Travis Kalanick said he “never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety”.

That protest went ahead without incident, but this kind of exchange was not an isolated example. The leak suggests that exploiting violence against Uber drivers formed an important part of Uber’s communications strategy.

In an email from the Netherlands, Uber deliberately sought to “keep the violence narrative going for a few days” as it shared police reports of attacks against its drivers with Dutch media.

When those reports were published on the front page of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf - without making Uber’s involvement clear - MacGann replied that this was “excellent work” and “exactly what we wanted”. Sharing the newspaper reports with other company executives, he added: "Step one in the campaign: get the media to talk about Taxi violence against POP [UberPop] drivers.”

Responding now to questions about his participation in Uber’s attempts to leverage violence against its drivers for strategic benefit, MacGann says: "There is no excuse for how the company played with people’s lives. I am disgusted and ashamed that I was a party to the trivialisation of such violence.”

Uber’s spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker says “there is much our former CEO said nearly a decade ago that we would certainly not condone today”. She adds nobody at the company had ever been happy about violence against drivers, and that the new management have “made safety one of the company’s top priorities”.

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Back in 2014, the controversial UberPop service was also attracting the attention of the authorities in Amsterdam, where Uber had its international headquarters.

When UberPop launched, the ILT, the body responsible for transport safety in the Netherlands, said that the moment it allowed the service to be used, Uber would be breaking the law.

There was initial concern among Uber’s top brass that the drivers of their ride-sharing platform would face criminal charges if arrested, according to leaked emails from a senior company executive.

But they did not consider it an imminent threat, and when the first arrests of UberPop drivers in Amsterdam merely resulted in formal warnings and a threat of a fine, Uber doubled down.

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