During an Uber ride in April last year, the driver mentioned that Reliance is considering an entry into the app based cab hailing market. According to him, some of his friends who have been driving with Uber and Ola were approached by people from Reliance to discuss with them the challenges they are facing and other details about their work. His tone indicated that he was quite excited about a more familiar name joining the race. Over the next few Uber rides, I brought up the topic with other drivers but none of them had similar story to share so it was dismissed as a rumour.

However, almost a year later, similar news has been popping up again. Trak.in reports quoting someone from Reliance that the company has a plan to launch the service in April but it might take longer depending on how the commercial rollout pans out. It also reports that the service will be called Reliance Jio Cabs named after the recently introduced 4G only telecom operator by Reliance Industry.

Reportedly, a business model is being worked out currently with E&Y taking care of the details. It is expected that the rollout will start with South India and they will eventually move towards North.

A simultaneous rollout in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is also on the cards. If things fall in line and the details in various reports are to be believed, Uber and Ola will have a strong competitor in the form of Reliance. As it has been seen in some of the previous ventures of the group and more recently with telecom operator Reliance Jio, expect a new price war to start. Flush with cash, the upcoming player can give Ola serious run for its money, quite literally.

The fact that Uber and Ola have been recently facing lot of backlash from its driver partners would further help them. Reliance might also be able to cash the brand recognition it already enjoys in India. To further help matters, the recently introduced telecom operator Reliance Jio has attracted many first time mobile internet users with its slew of freebies and it used the opportunity to push along its own suite of media, security and payment apps. It is likely the company will leverage its already 100 million strong reach of mobile users to drive growth for its cab service. Maybe the problems for Uber and Ola aren’t ending soon.

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Uber recently revamped its app to add an array of new features. Apart from putting more focus on the destination than the type of vehicle for the ride, it added the option of integrating calendar to automatically display suitable destination suggestions. Lyft has added a similar option giving users the choice to integrate the native phone calendar or Google Calendar to cut down the steps in booking a ride to the right destination.

Of course for the feature to work, you will have to add proper addresses to your calendar entries instead of vague identifiers. The feature is available through the ‘add from calendar’ option. Soon the app will also include the option to add destinations other than home and work so that one doesn’t have to enter them manually whenever required. This will reduce the friction and speed up the process, something the users will really appreciate when calling a cab from roadside.

As it is apparent (and highlighted by Uber), Uber uses machine learning to display destination suggestions which certainly is interesting but might not be always accurate. Lyft take a much simpler route and simply asks the user to add preferences. Expect to see more cab aggregators all over match the features in near future.

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India is a big market for the American cab hailing company but not without the unique challenges. Apart from the local rival Ola, low internet penetration and slow adoption mean that the large number of rides they complete are still a very small fraction of the entire cab market.

Accounting for the challenge of slow connectivity and low end devices, Uber earlier introduced a simplified mobile web version at dial.uber.com to allow people to book cabs without the need of downloading the app. Taking another step in the same direction, Uber is looking to associate with Indian Railways to allow for train travellers to book an Uber easily.

While there is no confirmation from either parties yet, some news reports quote railway officials confirming the development. According to the reports, the proposal is being considered and a revenue model is being worked out.

Uber is looking to lease out space at railway stations to make cabs readily available and set up kiosks to allow for passengers arriving on a train to book cabs easily. Some sources suggest that Ola is also looking at a similar partnership. Ola also recently started offering cab service to Mumbai Metro passengers by setting up Ola Zones.

With the massive scale of train travel in India, if Uber is able to attract even a small fraction of travellers, there will be a huge bump in the number of rides. With 12,000 trains daily, Indian Railways carries over 23million passengers everyday across 8000 stations. For railways, it would open up a new revenue source from the lease, commissions and service charges. Along with that, the railway stations will be able to provide better cab service to the travellers.

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At the Vanity Fair’s Next Establishment Summit conference in San Francisco, Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu said that the cab hailing company is definitely going global. She didn’t share much on how it will be achieved and how the brand will go on about it. Didi is already a investor in most of the Uber rivals all over the world and it will be interesting to see what else the Chinese ride hailing giant has up its sleeves.

Along with the investments, Didi also announced multi company partnerships with the local players that go against Uber. Entering markets like India or Singapore will be awkward to say the least. Didi is an investor in Ola and the Indian cab hailing company is a part of Didi’s multi brand alliance. On top of that, Uber is a strong rival to Ola in India and the fact that Uber has a seat on Didi’s board would complicate things.

US is another market that Didi might consider but even if that is part of the plan, it could be much lower down the list. Didi being an investor in Lyft and of course Uber will create similar problems. In European countries, Didi will have to deal with Uber directly and some of the local rivals. Didi can probably look at some markets that are new even for Uber but they won’t come without their own set of fresh challenges, and for a brand not acquainted to the market, it can be a steep climb.

It is worth mentioning that Didi might face regulatory issues in some parts of China if the proposed regulations come into effect. While Didi has certainly made good progress in a short amount of time, the optimistic global plans will not be easy to follow. The plan could possibly include some acquisitions and bigger partnerships, who knows?

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You weren’t wrong to assume that Didi will have smooth sailing ahead with Uber taken out of the equation. The American cab hailing giant was making some progress in the Chinese market but Didi was too big of a rival to back off without a fierce fight. So Uber decided to focus on other markets where it is on a level playing ground and the Uber China operations were taken over by Didi.

However, it isn’t all a frictionless road for Didi. Despite the massive scale in its home market, the size of the market means that Didi is yet to penetrate deeper into the market and the recently proposed regulations by some provinces could serve a massive blow to the progress Didi has made so far and cut down the number of driver partners to a very small percentage.

Now to make things worse for Didi, China’s Everbright Bank has invested USD 743 million in cab hailing app Dingding Yueche last week. While a relatively unknown name doesn’t sound like a threat to Didi, it is clearly gunning for the giant in its tough time. The proposed law, if implemented, would wipe out major chunk of Didi’s fleet putting Dingding Yueche on level ground in the major cities.

The proposed law could very well be the reason Everbright is investing in this young cab hailing company at this time. It is worth a mention that the bank is owned by China Everbright Group which is a state owned company. Although even Didi has received investments from state owned companies. Whether the investment turns out to be fruitful or not will largely be determined by how the regulations are finalised.

Source: Eco Business

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After the acquisition of its China business, it was very likely that India will get more attention from the global ride hailing company. Taking a step in that direction, Uber has hired three top level executives to its team in India. Uber has been known to run a lean approach in most markets but the company seems to be building a strong local team in India, further highlighting the importance of market for the brand.

Previously the CTO of Urban Ladder, an online furniture retailer, Apurva Dalal recently joined as the head of India engineering team in Bengaluru. He has also led the Google India Development Centre in the past.

Mahesh Bhalla has joined Uber as the head of business development and has previously been associated with Qwikcilver as president. Earlier he has been the executive director of Dell’s Consumer and SMB business in India. Abhishek Mahapatra has joined Uber as the head of communications team from Ford Motors in Shanghai.

The Indian market has seen many firsts from Uber. Uber had to adapt its product and strategy for Indian market like addition of new transport categories and payments through Paytm wallets and cash. Uber currently has over six hundred employees in India. Uber has also doubled the strength of its engineering centre in Bengaluru over the past six months.

As Uber guns for leadership in India, expect to hear more announcements from the ride sharing company.

Source: ET

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Various state governments in India have been working to put together the regulations for cab hailing companies in India and now the capital Delhi is next to come up with a set of regulations for these companies. The transport minister has confirmed that a draft has been prepared and could be placed in public domain in few days for feedback.

As it was expected after the regulations set by some other state governments, the Delhi government is also looking to gain control over how the cab hailing companies charge for rides. The government plans to direct the companies to stop using GPS and instead, rely on GPS for calculating the fares. The fares will be limited by the regulators though they will be dynamic. According to the information shared with ET by the minister, there will be an upper cap on the fare to kill surge pricing however, there will be no minimum prices as they are expecting the aggregators to eventually find the sweet spot.

Previously a similar limit was imposed by the state of Karnataka and the maximum fares were set by government. Uber strongly opposed the move through blog posts and personalised emails to users explaining why the approach of regulators isn’t the best. The regulators in capital region also forced the cab aggregators to disable surge pricing when certain traffic regulations were active.

Surge pricing has received negative response from most of the users but the argument of filling the demand-supply gap is also valid. The government should be looking at finding the middle ground, to allow the new technology driven players to pave the way ahead while protecting the interest of conventional players. However, the direction they are taking right now seem to be taking things back to how they were with the conventional cab players.

If the draft is implemented, we will essentially have conventional cabs that can be called using a mobile app. On top of all this, the government has failed to account for services like UberPool or Ola Share. These are the services they need to support in order to deal with the increasing volume of traffic on the roads. With Uber and Ola operating like conventional cabs with meters, it is unclear how they will be able to offer the sharing services. Maybe instead of dismissing the developments altogether, the government need to look at the finer details to move ahead. The Chinese government could offer some suggestions maybe?

Source: ET

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Few months back, a Google Maps update added the option of calling an Uber whenever you look for directions. Ola Cabs was also added to Google Maps so that you can simply look up your destination, check fare estimates and call an Uber or Ola right away. The feature is especially useful when you are using location from some third party source like WhatsApp or Email. You won’t have to check location data and then key in into the Uber app. This simplifies the process when you are on the go.

The option was available in other parts of the world as well and now Maps is adding Grab and Go-Jek in Southeast Asia. Earlier it offered only the option of Uber but now the new additions will also be displayed along with Uber like we see here in India. It will work in a similar fashion. When one looks for directions, it will also include the option of booking a cab or motorcycle taxi along with the estimated pickup time and cost.

This step will certainly help them gain more visibility, considering the fact that after clearing China out of the equation, Uber is likely to get aggressive in SouthEast Asia. On the other side, Grab is raising a fresh round to keep its game strong. Having better visibility will help to some extent.

GoJek is a relatively newer player but strong in the motorcycle taxi segment. The company plans to add new geographies and Google Maps will help with the visibility along with their own marketing efforts. Grab announced the update few days back through a blog post.

Source: TechCrunch

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Finally some thought of adding this. In yet another first, Uber’s home rival Lyft has added the feature to allow passengers to add multiple stops along their route. We often need to take multiple stops along the route, maybe to drop a friend or buy something on the way, and as more people ditch their personal vehicles in favour of ridesharing services, it is likely that more people will need to take multiple stops along their route.

In the US market, Lyft has tried to lure people with several firsts including Lyft Line and the option to schedule rides. Both of them eventually found way into Uber and many of its clones all over. This is another feature which should keep the customers happy. In case of point to point bookings, riders would often add the first destination and then change it manually later in the journey. This however would eliminate that. Riders can add their first stop as their destination and then tap next to it to add their final drop off point.

It not only solves the problem for riders who now won’t have to explain the route to the drivers or manually update the route but will also be helpful for the drivers. The driver start getting requests from new customers as they approach their destination and a last minute change eliminates that possibility. With the route clear and final drop off point added, the system will connect them to relevant riders near the end of journey rather than along the route.

The feature will be rolling out on the Lyft mobile apps soon. The feature is certainly a useful one and we might soon see other cab hailing companies take a hint from this. It was announced through a blog post by Lyft.

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Soon after the announcement of a huge investment round by the ride hailing giant Uber, Didi announced that they are looking at a round of investment that will top Uber’s recent investment. Apple recently invested USD 1 billion in the Chinese ride hailing company to strengthen its position in China and dig deeper into the automobile space. It could also be a great way for Apple to give push to its payment services. Now news reports suggest that Didi Chuxing has received another USD 605 million investment from China Life Insurance to further fuel the battle with Uber.

China Life is a 70 percent state owned company and is the largest life insurer in China. It is ranked at 94 in the Fortune 2015 Global 500 company list. The investment includes equity of USD 300 million and long term borrowing commitment of USD 305 million according to a statement. The statement also highlights that the two parties will also collaborate on investment opportunities in mobile transportation in China and beyond. This could mean that the two companies will be looking at supporting Didi’s international anti-Uber partners like Ola, Grab and Lyft.

However, China Life is also an investor in Uber and that too in the China operations of Uber. China Life isn’t the only investor placing bets on both the major players in China. Hillhouse Capital Group invested in Didi in the early days and is also an investor in the global operations of Uber. Tiger Global Management is another such investor. Tiger Global is not only playing both sides in the Didi and Uber episode but is also a major investor in GrabTaxi and Ola Cabs. The news of investment in Uber by Tiger Global wasn’t received well by other investors in Ola as one investor playing both sides in the battle puts other investors at a disadvantage.

It seems that with the potential ride hailing app companies have, investors are ignoring the unwritten rule of venture capital. No matter how things play out, they will be on the winning side, one way or the other.

Expect more investment news to come from Didi as the brand tries to top the USD 5 billion round raised by Uber. How this will play out in the long run is anybody’s guess.

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