17 minute read
Innovating the Future of Travel Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Ola
INNOVATING THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL
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BHAVISH AGGARWAL,
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO
You started a very promising professional career with Microsoft, where you managed to file two patents and also got three papers published in the international journals. What was your main motivation to enter into the entrepreneurial space and start Ola Cabs?
My stint at Microsoft was a great experience, and has contributed a great deal to my learning. However, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and create something that drives real change. Ankit and I started with Olatrip. com, with the intention of selling holiday trips online, but eventually, moved to intra-city trips realising the massive need for organised personal transportation, which was almost non-existent back then. We built the market ground-up and organised it at scale using technology. The Indian market is very different from the west. It’s not homogeneous; there’s no uniform middle class, or supply equality, hence, we segmented the market and built the right use cases for the right demographic. India’s per capita car ownership is just about 3%, as against that of the US which is as high as 70%. We cannot reach the kind of car ownership that the west has, with the existing infrastructure. Instead, we should work on the existing infrastructure and build shared mobility infrastructure to ensure every Indian has access to mobility.
On an average, over 300 million rides take place in India on a daily basis, we want to be a part of all of these trips, and add value to each of them, and every trip that every Indian takes!
Do you think the current innovation ecosystem in India presents an untapped opportunity or is it a bubble waiting to burst?
As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India presents tremendous opportunities to innovate. Within the transportation sector itself, rapid urbanization, smart cities, and lack of organized transport across tier 2 and 3 towns of India presents a huge opportunity to provide streamlined Internet-based, on-demand mobility services. These coupled with increased smartphone and Internet penetration and only 3% private car ownership in India, the scope to provide personal transportation services becomes much wider. Take for example the financial technology sector, digital payment platforms have changed the way Indians transact today, including bringing a large section of the population online by providing them with simple solutions for day-to-day transactions.
Ola collaborated with YES Bank to set up Mobile ATMs in over 30 locations across 10 cities. Do you think innovation like these would be key differentiator in Ola’s success going ahead?
Definitely! Such activities are a result of our understanding of the market and having the local intelligence to respond to them in an agile fashion. We are supportive of the government’s mission to digitalize transactions and ensure transparency. In order to ease some of the inconvenience caused due to the sudden demonetization of currency notes, we partnered with banks across several cities to install mobile ATMs in cabs, so that customers and driver partners could conveniently withdraw cash.
We have several such locally-relevant initiatives that have succeeded in responding at the right time to local issues. When rains flooded the streets of Chennai, we responded with Ola Boats. They not only transported people from one place to another but also, played a role in rescue operations and evacuations in the city. Ola’s Progressive Web App, an innovation of a much larger scale provides accessibility to Ola’s services in areas with poor Internet connectivity. The super light version of the app enables the use of our platform across hundreds of new cities in rural India and addresses a significant market opportunity of customers and driver partners. Innovations such as these and many others are built ground up keeping India’s unique needs in mind.
What are the new innovation based themes Ola is working on and what has been your key differentiator in ensuring the current market share? Ola has recently partnered with Apple Music to introduce an in-car experience component, and would also be rolling out Electric Vehicles in major cities. What are the next set of innovations we can expect from OLA in the next two years?
Several localized innovations have helped us to improve customer and driver partner experience, grow faster across categories and across geographies. In a short span of time, Ola has expanded its presence to 110 cities with a fleet of 600,000 vehicles. We don’t shy away from experimenting, our growth is the result of some bold and some wellthought steps.
We have scaled everything ground up, learning from the unique insights we have from different parts of the country and building localised
solutions. Market share is important and we have consistently been the Industry leaders. More importantly, we believe in creating lasting value for customers and driver partners. This approach has helped to stay ahead of competition and focus on innovation at all times.
Our growth story is further strengthened by strategic partnerships that have created synergies into the expanse of the ecosystem. We have partnered with leading car manufacturers, financiers to bring the best of options available to our driver partners with minimum hassles through various options like discounted car buying, leasing, etc. We also have tie ups with leading platforms such as BookMyShow, Zomato, and Practo amongst others. Customers can book cabs straight from these apps, alongside their event; be it a movie, a visit to the restaurant or an appointment with the doctor, making their mobility seamless and convenient. Our tie ups with Qualcomm, Apple Music, Mahindra, and other partners for Ola Play has helped enhance the product to provide the customer with a unique backseat experience that they can control. This is the world’s first connected car platform for ridesharing. Ola is also integrated into Google and Siri on iOS, giving customers an assisted experience of booking their cabs.
The next level of growth will be propelled by technology and innovation like never before. We intend to go deeper into tier 2 and 3 cities where there is a genuine need for transportation. We are also, extremely confident and excited about scaling Ola Play, the world’s first connected car platform that has changed the ridesharing experience in India.
How do you think driverless car technology would change the transportation sector?
Globally, there is a huge market for driverless car technology. In India, it will take some more time before it becomes a full-fledged reality, given the kind of variables on ground. However, we have already laid the foundation for the world’s first connected car platform - Ola Play, that has changed the way we view ridesharing. The technology puts the control of the ridesharing experience in the backseat of the car. The coming months will see Play become a smarter and intelligent platform for customers and driver partners alike. It is also important for India to focus on sustainable mobility, given the existential issues around pollution and congestion that we are facing. It is for this reason that we have accelerated our shared mobility offerings as well as piloted the world’s first multimodal electric vehicle project in India.
According to you, what are some of the peak innovations that we have witnessed globally in the recent times?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning backed business models are making huge waves in markets globally. From predicting fashion and food preferences of individuals, to identifying climate and disease patterns to alter practices, such technologies are changing the world. The Internet of Things powering various types of services makes it possible to get deep insight into consumer behaviour. Identifying problems and building innovative solutions through the smart data gathered has changed the face of healthcare, transportation, education, and several other sectors. Examples include, wearables, smart homes, connected cars, and smart cities. Creating favourable machine learning models to ensure that the solutions are delivered seamlessly has had a significant impact on our day-to-day lives.
In the overall entrepreneurial space, what would be one change that you wish to see in the coming years that would allow to create an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurs?
The government has been very supportive of the startup ecosystem in India with initiatives such as Startup India, Standup India, and Make in India. It encouraged the youth across the country to become entrepreneurs, create employment opportunities, and contribute to the growth of the economy. Bringing together other key players of the ecosystem such as academia, R&D, incubators, and venture capitalists will ensure a favourable and inclusive ecosystem for growth of startups. Supporting entrepreneurs and startups with tax incentives and favourable exit policies is also certain to encourage the growth of entrepreneurism in the country.
SHARING THE DISRUPTION REVOLUTION
AMANPREET BAJAJ,
COUNTRY MANAGER, INDIA
Airbnb has been a major disruptor in the Travel & Leisure industry and has emerged as a big competitor for the Hotel Industry landscape. What are Key-Takeaways the young aspiring entrepreneurs can garner from the Airbnb story?
Airbnb was founded only 8 years ago by three young Americans who really only wanted to solve their own problem. Their rent had been increased and they just couldn’t afford their apartment anymore. Faced with such a dilemma they got creative very fast. They filled up a couple of air mattresses, built a basic website and rented out air beds to visitors who were visiting San Francisco for a design conference, where all hotels were booked. And so, Airbedandbreakfast.com was born and with it, three entrepreneurs.
It’s easy to forget that only eight short years ago, Airbnb was nothing more than an idea. Having the humble roots of a startup ourselves, it is a privilege to be able to share what we have learned on our journey so far, with the Indian entrepreneurial community.
One key take away from Airbnb is that we put our community first, and that’s how we have grown. The best piece of advice the founders of Airbnb ever got was that it is better to have 100 people who love you, than a million who kind of like you. Instead of focusing on growing quickly, we are focused on building a product that our hosts and guests love. If they love it, they tell other people about it, and it grows from there.
Another insight is that when it comes to home sharing, what we are doing is not making something but empowering someone. Sharing economies equip individuals and groups to monetize underused assets by offering them as a service to customers in need. It is also a way for customers to find services for a particular requirement without having to invest in one’s own assets. There is an existing set of community resources and assets, and the possibility of creating and leveraging entrepreneurs around the globe. The insight to leverage those resources can lead to scale being achieved a lot faster, making greater impact on people, around the world.
At Airbnb, we believe that people should be able to feel like they can belong anywhere. Airbnb has enabled travellers to reimagine the way they travel by building a trusted community for people to list, discover and book unique properties and experiences at different locations, across the world. With the launch of Trips, our community-driven platform has made travel both, easy and magical. When someone visits a new city or country, Airbnb offers an opportunity for them to discover it in a unique way, encouraging them to live like a local, even if it’s just for one night.
Airbnb has initiated a new initiative ‘Trips’, where there are 100’s of experiences designed and led by local experts. Do you think innovation tweaks like these would be key differentiator in Airbnb’s success going ahead?
Airbnb Trips is an aspect of the platform which adds to the ability to explore a new place in a unique way. Launched in November 2016, Airbnb Trips is a community-driven platform that gives travellers an unparalleled access to local communities and their varied interests.
Currently, the platform sees over 800 active Experiences available, with travellers from over 73 different countries. While travellers get to experience a seldom-seen side of the city with the help of local experts, hosts on the other hand, find that it is an easy way to earn a little extra income by sharing their passions and interests, traditions and activities and meeting people from all across the globe.
Airbnb gives people a fresh outlook towards travel - it breaks away from a commoditized approach, thus changing the way people travel in three key ways: where they stay, what they do and who they meet.
Where one stays while travelling is an indispensable element of their complete travel experience. Whether it is a spare room, an entire apartment, a villa, a treehouse or a boat, Airbnb offers inroads to the most unique and diverse selection of accommodation. Travellers can also use Guidebooks for recommendations from hosts on the best way to immerse oneself in the local culture.
We see Airbnb as a platform which offers a complete travel experience, and with the kind of experiences we have launched as part of Airbnb trips, we expect that Airbnb will become the place where travelers seek inspiration, as opposed to using it as a logistical solution.
What are the new innovations Airbnb is working on to differentiate themselves from other similar competitors? Is there any new technologies you are looking to bring on board to enhance customer experience and customer preferences?
Airbnb is a people powered platform that connects guests with hosts, community is at the heart of what we do. The beauty of the brand is that we have been a global platform right from the start, with a network of guests and hosts that spans across the globe.
Our tools for guests and hosts to get to know each other before a reservation, including detailed profiles, authentic reviews, verifications, and our messaging platform, help us in maintaining a transparent community.
With experience being a key focus area, Airbnb’s star rating system helps strengthen our chain of guests and hosts - a potential guest books their stay and sets the right expectation to plan their trip. After the stay, it is mandatory for both parties to review each other on the platform, making it a transparent system for all. We also have ‘Superhosts’ on the platform, who constitute the best-reviewed hosts and properties and provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences for their guests.
We’ve built a number of trust and safety tools that apply to our users worldwide, including in India. This includes Verified ID, 24/7 customer service and safety support, and tools such as our internal messaging tool and a social network feature.
What sets us apart is that we focus on the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of travel, more than ‘what’ or ‘where.’ Airbnb is bringing together a global community of people who want to discover more about the world, and travel holds the key to bringing this community closer together.
The next wave of growth in India could be affiliated with the affordable housing sector, how do you think Airbnb could adapt and innovate to become a market leader within this sector? How would you differentiate yourselves from someone like Chototel or OYO to capture the increased market size?
We refrain from commenting on other players in the industry, but the help of our strong network of people, we have built a communitypowered platform like no other. Since the launch of the brand in 2008, Airbnb has grown immensely with over three million listings available to book across over 191 countries. The approach has remained consistent – making a concerted effort to observe and become involved in the local dynamics of a market.
In India, we have begun to forge partnerships with business and community stakeholders to empower the home sharing sector. We partnered with the Gujarat government to enhance the experience of the tourist, both domestic and international, visiting the state and boosting the tourism by creating positive travel practices. To drive awareness about the platform, we organised sessions and workshops for the local community to sensitize them on our global hosting standards for potential hosts.
We also signed an MoU with the Department of Tourism, Government of Andhra Pradesh in January 2017 to help promote Andhra Pradesh’s rich art, cultural and craft heritage to a global audience. Through this partnership Airbnb is helping rural artisans engaged in creating the flagship craft works of Andhra Pradesh to list their accommodations and experiences on the Airbnb platform for domestic and international travelers visiting Andhra Pradesh.
Recently, we signed a MoU with the Department of Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra. Through the partnership, the Department of Tourism and Airbnb will collaborate to boost tourism and create positive travel experiences for both domestic and international visitors in Maharashtra. We also announced a first-of-its-kind revenue sharing agreement with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), whereby Airbnb will share a portion of its booking revenue in Maharashtra with the MTDC. The MTDC will support the partnership by identifying high-quality homestays and helping hosts to list on Airbnb.
With the evolution of the new age traveller and the growth in numbers of the upwardly mobile population, the travel industry in India is expanding and so is the related technology. We see our biggest growth in India through its host community. Experiences of hosts that narrate a positive change in their lives inspires us to innovate and deliver better experiences to people around the world. Our focus is for more people to discover the value in travelling differently, and to maximize this value from our vast network of home sharing and experiences.
As there is a strong focus on inclusive and sustainable development, what are the key innovations in India that are revolutionizing this space?
Airbnb is built such that it brings together people who wish to share their homes and local expertise as a service, with travelers seeking to transform the way they travel. Airbnb has touched the lives of hosts in various ways. We have single mothers who use the platform as a primary source of income and elderly couples or ‘empty nesters’ who fill up the empty spaces in their homes, by opening up their homes to guests, from all over the world. These stories inspire more people to become hosts and list their homes on Airbnb, and the positive word of mouth is sparking further growth for our network in the country.
Through strategic partnerships in India, Airbnb has also given a global platform to the artisans from the state of Andhra Pradesh engaged in craft
works, after we signed an MoU with the state government. On the other hand, rural women who are associated with SEWA have listed their homes on Airbnb. This helps them to bring domestic and international travels to homes in otherwise undiscovered locations, and to supplement their income by utilizing unused space.
With this collaboration, we hope to be able to boost tourism for the country, which is sought as one of the most vibrant, and hospitable destinations by travelers, across the globe.
Under Honb’l Prime Minister Mr. Modi’s regime, there has been a strong focus on catapulting entrepreneurs in India. As one of the leaders, what policy changes you envision for India to become the leader in entrepreneurial space?
Home sharing is being accepted by countries around the world, as people embrace a new and unique way of exploring the world, and it is exciting that India is among the regions that are spearheading this transformation. With the government’s focus on programs like Digital India and the emergence of a number of technology ventures, the startup wave in the country is steadily rising, and spreading an entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth.
For countless families, home sharing is an economic lifeline. It enables people, around the world, to turn one of their greatest assets into a resource to make ends meet. In a country like India where technology is unlocking new and exciting opportunities, it is encouraging to see that the Indian Government has a positive approach towards enabling locals to be part of the sharing economy.
I recently had the opportunity to meet Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, along with Airbnb CEO and Co-Founder Brian Chesky and we have committed to creating 50,000 host entrepreneurs in the next two years (of which 15000 will be women), undertaking their skill development and building a conducive homestay ecosystem in India’s less developed, but high potential destinations.
