Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi is committed to investing further in the Indian market but also keeping a sharp eye on \u201ceventual profitability\u201d, as the US-based cab aggregator ramps up operations in the country.<\/p>\n
Speaking to PTI, Khosrowshahi said India is already among the top three markets (besides the US and Latin America) for Uber and accounts for 10% of its trips globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you that India is a key component of our growth plan. In fact, it is one of our healthiest markets in terms of growth rates. We have over 3 lakh active drivers and we currently do over 10 million weekly trips. We think, we can increase that by 5X or 10X over the next 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Khosrowshahi emphasised that this expansion will require investment, \u201cbut as you mature, you also want to combine that investment with eventual profitability\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think we\u2019re on a good road there, we just don\u2019t have a specific timeline in mind (for hitting profits). If anything, we\u2019re leaning forward in India,\u201d he said, adding that the company is confident about its competitive position in India.<\/p>\n
Uber has been pumping in substantial funds to fuel its growth in India. In 2015, Uber announced an investment of $1 billion in the country to expand its services. It has also set up a response and support centre in Hyderabad with an investment of $50 million.<\/p>\n
Asked about a merger with Ola was on the cards, Khosrowshahi said the company will \u201clook at any deals that can add value to its partners and shareholders, but we believe in controlling our own destiny in India\u201d.<\/p>\n
There have been reports about Uber and rival Ola joining forces in the Indian market. The speculations became stronger after SoftBank — an investor in Ola — joined Uber as an investor committing by over $1 billion. Apart from India, the two now also compete in the Australian market with Ola recently launching its services in Perth and Sydney.<\/p>\n
According to sources, the two have help multiple rounds of discussions, including one just before Khosrowshahi\u2019s visit in February this year but the two parties are yet to strike a deal. Both, Ola and Uber have declined to comment on whether the two are engaged in merger discussions.<\/p>\n
An Ola spokesperson said the company is always actively looking for opportunities for expansion of its footprint. \u201cOla will always be an active and integral part for decades to come. SoftBank and all other investors are committed in realising this ambition,\u201d the spokesperson had added.<\/p>\n
Last week, Uber announced a deal to sell its Southeast Asian operations to rival Grab for a 27.5% stake in the combined entity. Prior to the Grab deal, Uber exited two markets — China and Russia.<\/p>\n
Talking about the challenges in the Indian market, Khosrowshahi said the company needs to do more to get the app working for all Indians.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside the US, we know that many riders have lower-end devices and are in areas with poor networks. Historically, we\u2019ve not done a great job building for riders with those needs. That is changing, and we are committed to doing more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The top executive, who took over the reins of Uber in August last year, said the company is investing heavily in research and resources in the Indian market to build solutions for the local market.<\/p>\n
He cited the example of \u2018Call to Ride\u2019, a feature being piloted in Pune that lets people make a voice call to book rides (instead of the usual practice of booking rides through the app) from popular locations by providing a code displayed on a sign at a booking point. The company is also actively exploring use of electric vehicles in India on its platform, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi is committed to investing further in the Indian market but also keeping a sharp eye on \u201ceventual profitability\u201d, as the US-based cab aggregator ramps up operations in the country. Speaking to PTI, Khosrowshahi said India is already among the top three markets (besides the US and Latin America) for Uber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26739,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26737\/revisions\/26739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}