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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Everyone was wondering how the market outside of China will play out after the recent association between Uber China and Didi Chuxing. Well, we have the answer now. According to a recent news report by Bloomberg, Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Group are leading a new round of funding in ride-sharing service Grab. It also reveals that the deal could exceed  USD 600 million and the round may close this week.

The deal would push up the total investment in Grab past a billion USD. Grab CEO Anthony Tan was quick to comment on the merger of Uber China with Didi Chuxing and told his staff that this deal is a proof that local competition can beat the global ride sharing giant. He said, “With the deal in China, we expect Uber to turn more attention and divert resources to our region, but we have seen that when the local champion stays true to their beliefs and strengths, they can prevail. We see this happening in China, and it will be the same here. They’ve lost once, and we will make them lose again.”

The investment will fuel Grab to deal with the potential attack that is coming from Uber with Chinese market going out of the equation. It also clarifies that the association between Uber China and Didi Chuxing doesn’t cross the borders and the fight is far from over in other parts of the world. Some sources have also indicated that Uber plans to move their experts from China to other key markets. While the dust seems to have settled in China, it might just get fierce in other parts as Didi fuels the Uber rivals. Your move Uber.

Source: Bloomberg

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