Uber Technologies Inc, which is present in over 400 cities across 70 countries, customises its products to be local and relevant, says country head Amit Jain
Q. How has the past year been for Uber India?
It has been a phenomenal journey so far. It’s been a year for me and two-and-a-half years for Uber in India; we are in 27 cities in the country. We started off in one city, Bengaluru, and are also present in Colombo, Sri Lanka, today. Between 2014 and 2015, our business has grown 26 times, and we continue to grow week over week. We have close to 3.5 lakh driver partners. We have made a tremendous difference in their livelihood, income levels, flexibility at which they can earn and [bring about a] change in their lifestyle.
An important area will be the growing [positive] impact on cities from a pollution and congestion perspective due to the various features that we have rolled out, including car pooling. We’ve launched Uber Pool in Delhi and Bengaluru. More than 25 percent of our rides in both cities are on Uber Pool now. If you look at a more mature market like San Francisco where we launched Uber Pool much earlier, more than 50 to 60 percent of our customers use the service. There is a lot of potential there. We have launched Uber Commute in Delhi as well as Uber Bikes. We do consider other markets and will continue to expand in other cities. However, it’s not been a focus area for us because we think there is enough opportunity to grow in the markets that we are [already in].
(This story appears in the 24 June, 2016 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)