India will be Uber’s largest market globally: Andrew Byrne, Global Vice President for Public Policy, Uber

Byrne explained that the company is constantly innovating to meet the unique needs of the Indian market

Uber, a global cab aggregator service with operations in 125 cities across India, is betting on the country becoming its largest market in the next decade. The focus, however, will be more on its two- and three-wheeler services over cars, Andrew Byrne, Uber’s Global VP for Public Policy, told Moneycontrol.

“We expect to double our presence in India, tap into more geographies, expand our services to include more three- and two-wheelers, which is where the biggest growth will be,” Byrne said.

The San Francisco–headquartered company has 3,000 employees in its Bengaluru and Hyderabad offices, a headcount that, Byrne said, would go up as the company expands. “ In fact what we are building in Hyderabad and Bengaluru is being used for our services worldwide.”

In February this year, Uber signed an MoU with Tata Motors to bring 25,000 EVs on its platform. “The work we have done with Tata Motors in India is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. But as it pursues its goal to become net-zero, Byrne said that the cost of electric vehicles (EVs) is still a challenge.

The India model

Uber follows a different model in India as compared to that in the West. Asked about quality and safety concerns in Uber taxis, Byrne explained that the company is constantly innovating to meet the unique needs of the Indian market.

Uber has launched a special feature whereby female drivers can select women passengers, and vice versa. Apart from that, Uber has had reliability issues, with drivers cancelling rides at the last minute.

“We have had significant issues with cancellations and reliability, and are constantly talking to our drivers. We have introduced more transparency so that the driver knows exactly how much he/she is getting paid. We have started paying drivers more regularly. We need to double the number of drivers and for that, we have to make it attractive for them to be with us,” Byrne added.

While Uber pays drivers once every two weeks worldwide, in India drivers are paid every day. Also, in other parts of the world, Uber follows a peer-to-peer model where a private individual can use their car as a taxi for as many hours as they want for additional income. However, in all of India, barring Assam, cabs require a commercial licence. Assam is the first state in India that has introduced a peer-to-peer service.

“This has been a real regulatory breakthrough in Assam. With a peer-to-peer service, you get a whole different cross-section of people offering their services,” he said.

Reiterating Uber’s focus on India, he said that while India is a huge opportunity which has prodded Uber to think of different ways to cater to the market, administrative compliances continue to be a challenge.

Different states have different policies for cab aggregators, and many even require different licences in different parts of the state. Maharashtra, for instance, requires four licences to run cabs in other state cities.

However, Bryne says that India has come a long way since 2013 when Uber had a tough time explaining the utility of its service to policymakers.

“We do believe there is economic value in ride-sharing regulations if you want the full benefit of a service like Uber,” Bryne explained.