Uber entered the Indian market three years ago, to change how we look at urban transportation. Over these three years, the brand has managed to grow just from ‘secret Ubers’ in Bengaluru to 28 cities across India. There have been many challenges, including the fierce competition from local rival Ola and certain regulatory issues, but the brand has registered strong growth nevertheless.

After US and China, India was a major market for the brand. Not being a direct fit in the Indian market, Uber adapted and introduced some firsts for the Indian market. In most markets, Uber relied on credit cards. However, that wasn’t the favourable mode of payment for Indian buyers with low credit card penetration and the RBI was raising eyebrow because their payment method skipped the mandatory two step authorisation in favour of seamless user experience. They addressed this in 2014 by associating with Paytm for ride payments.

When they started moving beyond the metro cities, they also started allowing the users to pay through cash in early 2015. Hyderabad became the first city in the world in which Uber began accepting cash payments, a feature which has since been expanded to few other markets. The addition of Auto rickshaws was another first for the Indian market despite the fact that they were already a popular mode of transport in many other Uber markets. To deal with the heavy congestion in metro cities and offer last mile connectivity to complement metro train network, Uber also introduced UberMOTO motorcycle taxis. The service faced some regulatory roadbumps but should be back soon considering the advantages for daily commuters.

The cab aggregator has also offered the opportunity for many to be self-employed. There is a new breed of micro entrepreneurs who are managing small fleets and working with Uber to earn their livelihood. To cover more ground towards getting more people in less cars, Uber introduced the UberPOOL feature in five cities in India. This has helped in reducing congestion and the pollution in our cities. According to the data shared by Uber in a blogpost, the feature has saved the need of travelling 12,880,000 kilometres resulting in saving of around 605,000 litres of fuel and 1,400,000 kgs of carbon dioxide.

“Our three year journey in India is immensely gratifying as Uber’s growth has unlocked thousands of entrepreneurial opportunities, who are now able to earn a livelihood with dignity, while offering freedom of mobility to millions of riders across 28 cities in the country.”

One of the many reasons growth of Uber, specifically the UberPOOL service is crucial for the Indian market is because it opens up people to sharing resources. As people get acquainted to the idea sharing cabs, they will eventually open up to the idea of sharing their personal resources which will be a major driver of sharing economy. You can read more about their journey on their website here.

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Carsharing is a trend that has recently started to pick up in India. As the challenges with public transport don’t seem to disappear and car ownership costs continue to go higher, people are looking for middle ground. BlaBlaCar, the French ridesharing company, arrived in India last year and is gaining momentum quickly by allowing travellers to connect and share a car for intercity travel. This not only allows the users to travel in comfort of a car at lower costs but also reduces congestion and underutilisation of cars.

During the recently concluded Phocuswright India, we got a chance to speak with Raghav Gupta, Country Manager, India at BlaBlaCar to know more about the scope and challenges with ridesharing in India. Here is an edited excerpt from the conversation:

What opportunities do you see for BlaBlaCar in India?

At BlaBlaCar, we are trying to make it easier for people to travel from one city to other. In India travelling in a bus or train isn’t very easy and if you have a car, the costs are high. There are millions of people who want intercity travel to be easy, convenient and cost effective and that is a very large opportunity I see.

What are the challenges in growing a ridesharing platform in India? How do you tackle them?

We enable people to share cars which is a relatively new concept in India. I think sharing as a culture comes easily to Indians and isn’t very difficult as compared to the western markets but the concept of sharing a car with people you have never met in the past is relatively new. We have been in India for a little over a year and we have seen traction build up quickly. There is a strong group of early adopters and as more people get to know about BlaBlaCar, we will see it grow even faster.

I think the main difference in adoption between the western world and India is mainly on two points. First, it is a new concept so educating people is important as they need to understand it well. Second is that people want additional layers of trust and safety. Before a user travels in someone else’s car, he or she would like to ensure that it is safe and pleasant.

To ensure that, we build a community of people through a combination of checks, ratings, technology and various other things that help boost the confidence of users and inspire them to share a ride.

What is your take on UberPool? Do you think it will help increase the adoption of services like BlaBlaCar in longer run?

UberPool allows you to travel with a stranger by sharing a taxi for local travel and from our perspective, it is a positive thing. If you share a cab for short distance today on UberPool, tomorrow you might consider using BlaBlaCar for an outstation trip, maybe from Delhi to Dehradun, because it is similar except for the fact that it is not a taxi and is someone else’s private car. So it is certainly a step that helps ridesharing in India.

What is next in pipeline for BlaBlaCar in India?

In our first year, we focussed on usage. About one million seats were offered on our platform and the most interesting part was that this happened not just in the Tier 1 cities but in smaller cities as well. We saw users from over 700 cities offering seats. We are connecting two big cities better but we are also connecting small cities through our platform. The idea is to continue building that and we are focussing on growing it multifold in future.

You can find more stories from Phocuswright India here.

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