Two of India’s largest cab aggregators, Ola and Uber, clocked over 500 million rides in 2016, according to a report by RedSeer Management Consulting. Even though the two companies faced a lot of challenges in India, they managed to rake in half a billion rides.
Compared to this, the two giants had clocked 130 million rides in 2015, which shows their commitment towards the Indian market and the interest riders and drivers are showing in the two platforms. A 285% increase in one year is very impressive, and definitely could be attributed to intense competition, tariff cuts and ride-sharing services.
“2016 was a challenging year for the industry from an external perspective, with multiple regulatory challenges and supply-side disruptions, but consistently growing demand from customers enabled the industry to tackle all these challenges successfully and emerge successful at the end of the year compared to the beginning,” the report read.
Both the companies are introducing interesting services like rentals, luxurious vehicles, outstation options and carpooling within cities to increase their ridership and revenues. Now there are more cabs available on the road compared to a year back.
The report also noted that even though there was an increase in the number of rides, thanks to more cabs and services from the two companies, there was not much reduction because of demonetization. However, electronic transactions increased by almost 20%.
Uber and Ola both brought down the prices of their cheapest offerings to Rs 6/km which definitely did give a boost to the ridership. Even though the drivers are now protesting against this price drop, the two companies have decided to slowly increase the tariffs so that the consumers do not feel the sudden pressure.
The penetration of Ola and Uber in India is massive, and even smaller cities and towns have these services. Ola is actually spread in a lot of cities Uber hasn’t yet entered, and Uber has better customer service, which gives users a good option to choose from.
This year, 2017, has already started with protests from Uber and Ola drivers to increase the prices of the cab services, provide accidental insurance and bring back incentives. As the funds dry up, the companies struggle to keep up with the services while also keeping all the involved parties involved.
Another competitor is entering the ring now, Jugnoo, with a pilot in Gurugram. It will be interesting to see how the company fares against these two giants who have been serving for quite some time now.
Source: VCCircle
