Uber Confronts Moscow Market Used to Rides With Strangers: Tech

As Uber Technologies Inc. faces growing competition and government oversight in the U.S. and intense protests by cabbies from Boston to Berlin, even places that should be more amenable to the ride-finding service -- like Moscow -- are proving difficult.

For decades, Muscovites have simply put their hand out curbside to flag down drivers, bargained a price, and taken off. That unruly atmosphere, though, means both increasing regulation and greater competition for Uber, which in February arrived in the Russian capital with a high-end service using luxury cars.