Till just a few months ago, talk of a possible merger between Uber and its fierce Indian rival, Ola, was rife. But the American cab-hailing service has clearly decided to ride solo. In the second week of June, Uber unveiled Virat Kolhi, the Indian national cricket team’s captain, as the face of its brand in the country. From billboards to newspaper spreads to a digital montage, Uber has gone all out with its Badhte Chalein (Move Forward) campaign.
There have been several instances where the driver who finally turned up at the customer’s door was different from the one shown as registered with Uber when the booking was made. Often drivers are not verified either. Uber has been replicating its US driver-vetting process in India, which just doesn’t work given the different policing system and licensing norms here, according to Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and CEO of Greyhound Research.
“…we still don’t see credible steps in safety and driver on-boarding from (Uber’s) side,” said Gogia. “The marketing strategy is convenient to localise. It’s not convenient to localise driver on-boarding…that’s not fair, is it?”
[Quartz]
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Analyst:
Sanchit Vir Gogia: Sanchit is the Chief Analyst, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Research, an award-winning global research & advisory firm. To read more about him, click here.