In India, Uber is on the road with these two biggest ridesharing apps: Ola and Rapido. The Indian ridesharing marketing has traditionally been characterized by the intense rivalry between Uber and Ola, just like TV network wars, with both companies investing heavily in market share acquisition and customer retention strategies.
However, the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, has spoken that the toughest competitor now of Uber India is Rapido, not Ola anymore.
“Ola used to be our main competition. I’d say now the tougher competition in India is Rapido. They got into two-wheelers and three-wheelers really aggressively with a zero-commission subscription model. Very scrappy as well. Ola is now kind of a distant third,” Khosrowshahi stated in a recent interview.
This statement is a shocker, considering that Ola is the first to come to mind when discussing Uber’s number one competitor in India.
Rapido was established in 2015 and has swiftly catapulted itself to a market presence centered on a distinctive approach to motorcycle-based transportation services.
Not like its competitors that focused primarily on four-wheeler services, Rapido was able to carve out a niche in the bike taxi segment prior to expanding in adjacent sectors.
The current operational footprint of Rapido spans more than 100 cities all over India, demonstrating a significant geographic reach.
Also, Rapido has systematically diversified its service portfolio above and beyond its original bike taxi offering to include auto-rickshaw bookings, classic cab services, parcel delivery solutions, and third-party logistics operations.
Khosrowshahi also emphasized how India is a winning market for Uber, calling it their third-largest globally with 1.4 million drives across autos, bikes, three-wheelers, and cars.
“India is a must-win for Uber, not just tomorrow, but ten years from now,” he further stated.