Not worried about Ola's claims on market share: Uber's Pradeep Parameswaran

Taxi aggregator Uber says it is not obsessed with market share metrics as it is focusing on improving the product and customer experience, even as rival cab aggregator Ola claims to be the market leader in India.

"I am least, to be honest, worried about what happens with Ola's claims and the market share numbers that they talk about. Why would I care so much about market share as a metric right now when we are so early in our mission," said Pradeep Parameswaran, head of central operations of Uber India in an interaction with Moneycontrol.com

"Our mission is about bringing reliable transportation to as many people as possible. And in that journey, we are in a very early stage in India. So we focus on whether we were better today than we were last week. And week over week are we delivering a better product that allows us to make sure that we become the default choice," he added.

According to a media report in December, Ola claimed the company to be having a three-fourth market share.

While Ola was founded in 2011, Uber entered in India in mid-2013.

The two companies have always been at the loggerheads, either on pricing or on incentives to drivers and riders.

Last month, taking it to a completely different level, Ola's founder and chief executive officer Bhavish Agarwal compared the competition with the rival with world wars citing that the Americans companies were carpet bombing India with capital.

"Our focus is to make sure that we make investments here to bring the service to as many people as we can. Early stage of this requires a certain amount of investments, and investments frankly have been made by all players in this space. It is not that we are making a certain set of choices that others are not making," Parameswaran said when asked about the issue of capital dumping.

"We are still in very early stages of that but making a lot of progress from moving to a pure early stage tech startup to something that is sustainable and a mature business," he added.

Unlike Ola which claims to have expanded to 110 cities in the country Uber is present in 29 cities across the country.

According to Parameswaran, the company is still in its early phase across these cities and would ‘double down’ on them before expanding any further.

"We cover most of the large cities. We are so early in those cities ... and for us it is super important that we double down in each of those locations and make this a (default) choice when you think of going to work or you think about going to a bar in night...in all of those occasions you think about us first. Once we have that right, I think everything else will be taken care of," he said.

According to a report by research firm Redseer Consulting, online cab players nearly completed half a billion rides in India during the calendar year 2016, witnessing a 250 percent year on year growth.

Globally Uber has been in troubled waters off late, following exits of multiple senior executives and charges of sexism at the workplace.

Speaking on the culture at the Uber's India offices, Parameswaran said that India is a very young and new team with ambitious folks trying to bring about a change and that the company has a mechanism to surface any concern that the employees may have.

"Any concerns in the employees space, we have very active mechanisms internally that we are using to surface them...create forums for them to actually talk about it in as open and transparent way as we can," he said.

Following allegations of sexual harassment and sexism in the workplace by a former female employee Susan Fowler, earlier this year, Uber has announced an investigation which is being led by Eric Holder, the ex- attorney general of the United States.

The taxi industry in India in recent weeks has also seen a series of protests including hunger strikes by drivers of cab aggregators over issue of declining earnings. During 2014-15, taxi hailing firms roped in drivers at hefty incentives in the land grab period and are now rationalising costs as they aim to increase their revenue and move on a path of sustainability.

Clarifying the company's stance, Parameswaran that in order to address every concern of the drivers, Uber has set up a community-based event called Uber Samaj, which is attended regularly by senior executives and group of drivers across every city.

"Anybody who drives more than six hours on our platform makes roughly between Rs 1500-2500, a day, even after taking out our service fee. And we believe that the platform is able to provide them sustainable earnings, factoring in kind of what we know is a cost for their business. So it is something we worry about a lot. Something I personally focus on it on a day to day basis and take ownership for making sure that we are able to deliver on that," he said.

These sessions at times are very raw and heated, according to Parameswaran, however, he says that India is a very price-sensitive country which forces the company to keep the fares affordable.

"India is among the most price-sensitive markets in the world and consequently, you have to provide the service at a level where a lot of people want to take it. So the business only works if my driver is constantly getting rides and if he is constantly getting rides, it has to be priced reasonably attractive. So it is actually very fine balance and every once in a while, the balance kind of swings one way or the other," he said.

"(When) supply goes down, pricing goes up, some passengers and riders don't like that and they drop off the platform. Then it takes weeks for us to attract them to come back. These kinds of things are super sensitive for us to be able to manage. We have to do a fine balance on both sides. But we cannot have a service without our driver partners getting sustainable earnings and we are committed to making sure that, that happens," he added.

Uber claims that it has taken a 10 percent price increase on an average level, in the recent past.

priyanka.sahay@nw18.com