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Drawing from the sociology of emotions, this article analyzes the influence of empathy (a consumer’s ability to compassionately relate to another actor’s situation) on the success of a platform market. A multi-year ethnography of the Uber ride-hailing market reveals that the legitimacy of platform markets evolves over the course of contestations between platform risk narratives circulated in the news media and empathetic consumer narratives promoted by the platform company. Each contestation addresses an enduring tension between a market’s competitiveness and care. We show how Uber’s management team drew on three empathetic platform myths (Safe Haven, Caring Commons, and Cultural Mosaic) to alleviate the physical, financial, and social consumer risk perceptions of using Uber, thereby stabilizing Uber’s platform market. We close by offering four consumer empathization strategies (apathization …