As the fight and the tuff competition stiffens between India’s biggest cab service aggregators, Uber and Ola, both are trying to pitch themselves to their common investor SoftBank.
Both the cab service operator are heading in opposite directions. As Ola which is based out of Bengaluru is starting operations in seven Australian cities and also plans to enter United Kingdom, the US-based Uber is now strongly focusing on India.
Trips to India are being planned by Uber’s executive leadership team (ELT), the core management committee that runs the company, so as to understand the Indian Market.
In a years’ time, it lost its leadership position in India because of issues related to the founder and CEO as well as internal turmoil and a lack of focus.
Uber’s present CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has announced India as its “core market” and the company is going to accelerate full throttle to regain its market standing and position.
Uber Chief Operating Officer Barney Hardford will visit India next week during which he will meet government officials and business leaders.
According to a source “For Uber, India is the market where they want to prove they will be the top player. The idea is to make them understand the market and the challenges. This is a continuous learning process and ELT members will be coming regularly,” and more ELT team members will be periodically visiting India for the same.
Realizing that connectivity is a key and major issue in India the company is launching a host of India specific products for the country to address this issue.
Pradeep Parameswaran, head of central operations, Uber India and South Africa, was quoted as saying “We are focusing on key areas for riders and building solutions for those who don’t have access to the Uber app. We are enabling our existing rider app to work better in emerging markets. Products such as a light web-based version of Uber, m.uber.com, provides riders with another convenient option to book an Uber cab,”
Uber has also launched an offline service for its commuters for those customers who are in poor internet network areas
Uber is now in 31 cities which also include Kanpur and Amritsar. Uber boasts of 3 lakh active drivers and does more than 10 million trips a week.
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