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    Taxi aggregator Ola twice as large as rival Uber: Truecaller report

    Synopsis

    In a bid to understand penetration of cab services in the country, it analysed around 2.5 billion calls made between consumers and service providers.

    ET Online
    Taxi aggregator Ola is twice as large as its rival Uber, according to a report by mobile directory firm Truecaller. Reportedly, 102 million calls were made between Ola and its users compared to just 39 million calls for Uber between January 1, 2016 and April 17, 2016.

    In a bid to understand penetration of these services in the country, Treucaller analysed around 2.5 billion calls made between consumers and service providers. The report stated that distribution of calls between Ola and Uber stands at 72% and 28%, respectively. The data was collected from calls tagged as 'taxi services' in India during the period stated. Even if the veracity of the report can be debated, the huge sample size of the analysis provides a good insight into the trends prevailing in the online taxi aggregator in India.

    According to the report, app-based services like Ola and Uber are the undisputed leaders by numbers of calls in a new wave of ride-sharing that is going online. Ola made 42.5 million calls to its users, while 59.5 million calls were made by its users – accounting for the 102 million calls between the taxi aggregator and its users. On the other hand, Uber users received 13.6 million calls from the company and called the company 25.4 million times – which totaled 39 million calls. The report offers a glimpse into the way taxis are booked in India while on the move.

    Of the 684 million phone users in India, 205 million smartphone users are increasingly booking taxis through these apps. However, these services still make up a very small part of the massive taxi industry in India. Calling a local taxi vendor still accounts for majority of the revenue in the industry at more than 48% of all bookings.

    Even if the share of volume attributed to both these aggregators is a little over 6%, its potential cannot be understated. There is abundant room for more than one service to evolve even if the market keeps growing even at the current pace.

    There is intense competition between Ola and Uber in India. Ola offers services in 102 cities and has 450,000 drivers on its platform. Uber, on the other hand, is present in 26 Indian cities with 250,000 drivers using the platform, the highest compared to any other country outside the US. Uber recently sued Ola for $7.5 million to compensate for lost revenue and goodwill on the account of fake bookings.
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    The Economic Times

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