Ola, Uber to tie up with railways, airports, metros for easy booking kiosks

Ola, Uber to tie up with railways, airports, metros for easy booking kiosks

After witnessing slowing growth over the past 18 months, India’s ride-hailing bigwigs are partnering mass transit companies. Both Ola and Uber have been tying up with mass transit companies, setting up easy-booking kiosks at metro stations and airports to grow user base. “Growth definitely slowed in 2017, but the market did not decline. This had to happen since every time you have a new concept, there will be early adopters, and then it will reach a level of incremental growth. That is the

stage the market is entering now, and that is why there is a change in strategy of these firms,� said Jaspal Singh, partner at Valoriser Consultants.

Ride hailing still has a long way to go in replacing car ownership, but the market is beginning to mature in India. Customers are beginning to pay for rides even when fares are not heavily subsidised, while budget-conscious users are opting for services such as ride-sharing that both the firms offer.

On the driver front, both players saw a slight dip in growth due to higherthan-normal churn when incentives were slashed. But a drive to bring new partners onboard through leasing programmes equalised a lot of that, Singh said. Overall, while the industry did see growth dip, the number of rides on the two platforms continued to grow.

Article source-BUSINESS STANDARD