Ever since 2013, Uber has steadily put itself on the face of the ride-hailing market in India and is speeding the way forward. It has undergone quantitative speculations over dozens of laws and has thrived to keep the market shares consistent. As a part of its latest brand campaign, ‘Move Forward’ Uber India has come up with a series of print and outdoor campaign. The four films that encapsulate the core idea of adoption and moving forward has been conceptualised by BBH India. The idea is to encourage the population to empower themselves in everyday situations.

Turning the focus on the adverts that have been made around the lives of Uber commuters, these four films depict real-life instances where the people hail from different walks of life and different region but move forward in the same direction.

One of the stories depicts an old couple using the Uber app to pre-book a taxi so that they can surprise their grandchild on his birthday at the stroke of midnight. This narrative brings about the sensitive topic of elderly people being less independent and imobile which is where Uber comes in play to jaunt them out of their 80s into their 18s.

The other one follows the life of a newlywed pair struggling to repair their fan in the midst of intense summer afternoon. As a result, they book an Uber and enjoy some alone-time in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. The subtlety of the picturization falls on the merits it offers as a brand within a reasonable range.

Next, comes in scene a dictatorial mother exploring suitable prospective consort for her daughter as they commute in Uber Pool. It’s a satirical take on the dating apps like Tinder that have sprung in the last decade.

Speaking of which, we come to our last print that opens with a young girl in the back seat revising her lessons while being driven to school. The driver manages to get her little one through traffic to make her reach on time for her test. While she talks away in English with her father, the film reveals that the man is able to afford English medium schooling for her daughter, thanks to Uber.

The brand is obviously detouring from the tongue and cheek humour that has gotten things running in recent times. Unlike others, it has taken a very harmonious road where it builds focus on both drivers and consumers collectively. In a conversation with Financial Express, Ashwin Dias, General Manager, Uber India says, “The campaign focuses on both riders and driver partners. It emphasises that Uber driver partners are like you and me who have a family and are working.”

Uber gives a reason for both drivers and consumers to come on board through these soft-spoken adverts. In one of such efforts to magnetise the market share in the country, it has also launched a pan-India challenge UberPITCH in partnership with the ministry of commerce and industry where the innovators would get the opportunity to meet investors and make a pitch. Of course, their focus would be more on the Indian ground as they’ve shied away from China’s Didi Chuxing; The Uber Slayer as they’d be referred to as. They’ve been reportedly handling more volumes than Ola now which clearly boils down to one thing; they’re ready to push and #MoveForward.

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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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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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On-demand taxi hailing services in India are catching up well despite the roadblocks they are facing along the way. Every now and then we find ourselves using apps like Ola cabs, TaxiForSure and Uber. People already have their favourites but at times they are left navigating between different apps to book a cab due to non-availability. With so many options available to us, it is usually not a very smooth experience.

We recently came across a startup called OyeTaxi which seems to fix this problem. OyeTaxi is aggregating the cab providers in one place. So you don’t have to switch between multiple apps on the go to check which one is available or which one will arrive early. It also gives you other details as like the fares (including surge prices) and ETA.

OyeTaxi was started in July 2015 by a bunch of 4 individuals with years of experience in the internet domain. Vipul, Anuj and Nitesh come from top engineering institutes while the fourth team member, Karan is pursuing his MBA from ISB Hyderabad.

We tried the OyeTaxi app for over a week and it surely scores well in terms of usability. As soon as you launch the app, it picks your location in no time and lists down all the available options. By default the options are listed according to the cab providers but you can choose to list them according to the estimated time of arrival. At this moment you can see Ola cabs, Uber, TaxiForSure and Meru cabs listed on OyeTaxi but we have been told by Vipul that they are in talks with more players in this space to get them on-board. You can directly book an Ola through the OyeTaxi app while for others you are directed to their respective app to book. The UI of the app isn’t something you can call amazing but it is neat and functional.

At this point the startup is targeting to expand its user base rather than focussing on commissions. It is also working to get other operators on-board and offer direct booking on the app itself similar to Ola to offer a seamless experience. Going forward OyeTaxi plans to add options like car-pooling and outstation cabs on the platform.

There are few other apps already available on the Play store that aggregate the cab services on a single platform. However Vipul pointed out that OyeTaxi offers real-time updates on fares including surge prices which isn’t available with any of the competitors.

The OyeTaxi app is available only for Android devices right now. You can download it here.

TravHQ Take

With rising competition among on-demand cab apps in India, OyeTaxi seems to be a good fit for all consumers looking for instant cabs. While aggregation of all operators is critical, the problem that most commuters in India face with on-demand taxi apps is failed repeated requests. If OyeTaxi can ensure fast experience and take a tip or two from GrabTaxi’s success, who knows, we might just have a metasearch for Taxis

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