
Uber’s New Rival in Australia: An Indian Upstart - johnny313
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/technology/ola-uber-australia-india.html
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finebalance
In the Indian market, Ola does a few things better than Uber. For example,
they have an OTP, which is a 4-digit numerical code you need to provide to the
driver at the start of every ride. In a low-trust market like India, this is
instrumental in helping certain people pre-pay for this sort of service.
Secondly, they've long had more options than Uber in types of service they
provide: ie, rickshaw, car rentals, etc. And finally, they've also recently
introduced ola credit, which is really convenient for me as I take short, low-
cost rides to and fro work, and credit is sufficient to allow me to pay at one
go at the end of the week.

There is a perception that Ola has a lower quality of drivers in the Indian
market, but I doubt such a thing would be replicated in Australia. That said,
I've gotten quite a few stinkers from both services, so I'm sure that the bias
in Indian middle/upper-middle classes against native companies plays strongly
into the perception of Ola drivers as worse than Uber.

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simula67
Why do you think India is a low trust market ?

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manojlds
Ola has been a pretty interesting company. They have tried a lot of things
like integrating auto ricks into their network (which Uber has copied now),
including Wifi, on board entertainment, pool pass, membership rates etc. They
even had boat service when Chennai (my city) was flooded. I wish them good
luck!

~~~
clay_to_n
In India, Ola also seems to have nicer car models than Uber, at least at the
cheapest price point without sharing your ride with a stranger. Coupled with
the wi-fi and the entertainment system (to put on whatever of the limited
Apple Music set you choose) made most of my friends in Bangalore prefer it.

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what_ever
Ola also always more expensive than Uber when I was in India for a few weeks.
And another anecdotal feedback is all of my friends felt Uber had better crop
of drivers and service than Ola.

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manojlds
I am the grand parent poster - have stopped using Ola as Uber drivers are more
predictable. Also they have weird KYC requirements and wanted to send physical
documents for Ola Money, blocking my money without that.

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Brajeshwar
And that one. I did my PayTM KYC long before Aadhaar became the silver bullet.
PayTM have the ₹10,000 limit per month without the KYC and my Uber bill
usually got exhausted by the middle of the month. Heck, I can use the same
PayTM balance to eat corn on the streets.

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siquick
(Sydney resident)

Taxify launched here in December with 50% off rides, people jumped on board
and ditched Uber.

50% rides ended - everyone went back to Uber, including myself.

Can't seen this ending any differently unless Ola is significantly cheaper.

____

Just tried to sign up for Ola and they couldn't even send me the verification
text to sign up with.

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robryan
It keeps Uber honest. I have no idea at any time if Uber surge pricing is
reasonable, being able to check against another app will help.

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siquick
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that there is competition but the vast majority
of people just care about a car that turns up on time and doesn't cost them a
fortune.

If Taxify/Ola aren't doing anything majorly different from Uber then there's
no reason for people to switch away from a service that proven to work.

~~~
darklajid
Anecdotally Singapore has (local) Grab and Uber. People seem to use both, I
personally made far better experiences with Grab.

Superficially they're the same, still there seems to be room for both and I
personally prefer the Uber alternative more.

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srean
Ola drivers are probably not on HN, which is a shame because that would have
revealed a more balanced picture.

Ola drivers are often dealt a short end of the stick by Ola. Ola knows this,
and gets away with it because many of the drivers come from a financial
background where they do not have much of a choice. Drivers face ridiculous
delays in getting paid their share of the ride, that is, if they get paid at
all. You would often encounter Ola drivers insisting on getting paid by cash
rather than Ola money.

Ola's software backend leaves a lot to be desired, losing track of money is
quite frequent, used to be routine before.

I don't expect commentary from Ola drivers but hope some Ola engineers will
comment on their engineering backend and culture: lack of work life balance,
insane hours, continuous firefights to keep their service afloat, just about
barely in spite of being staffed by way more engineers than Uber India.

Someone privy to the details claimed -- "The marvel is not that the bear
dances well, but that the bear dances at all." I am not sure if things have
changed, they are rolling in so much investor money that they really don't
have strong incentives to.

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ojm
It’s nice to get some competition for Uber.

In Melbourne we now have Taxify, Uber and GoCatch.

A forth in the mix would be great.

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jaimex2
I'm guessing drivers will sign up to this along with Uber, Taxify and GoCatch
and keep flicking between them or just use a bunch of phones with one acting
as a hotspot. Which ever pays the best will take priority.

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jamez1
Some stats:

Taxify has had 130k downloads in the last 4 months. Ola is at 24k for about 1
month.

Far cry from Uber which does that in almost 2 days

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jpatokal
Those are worldwide stats, no? That's not going to tell you much about
Australian ride sharing.

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thelittleone
In case, like me, you're unfamiliar with the term "Upstart" in this context. I
found a few vague definitions that boil down to:

Startups are entrepreneurial businesses that start with external funding.

Upstarts are businesses that start without significant external funding.

~~~
maxxxxx
Doesn't "upstart" have a slightly negative connotation?

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prawn
Not particularly. Most would interpret it here as "plucky". Small player
tackling bigger players, having to work a bit harder and smarter, etc.

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maxxxxx
Interesting. I thought this word is often used by incumbents to look down at
the newcomer. English is not my first language so it's good to learn these
subtleties.

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comex
To me it does come off as vaguely negative - in context, perhaps hinting at
skepticism of whether the company will succeed in overtaking Uber. But if so,
only mildly; the word definitely has its positive connotations too.

~~~
matte_black
When startups were "cool" and people weren't so keen to their puffery and PR
hacks or vaporware smoke tests, it was positive.

However, these days you almost certainly want to be known as a "business" by
anyone who matters, and one with good reviews.

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YogeeKnows
Australians get ready for questions/requests like

a. Can you please cancel OLA ride and book a ride on Uber or vice versa?
#incentives #UberOLATwosome

b. Cash or OLA Money?

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tgasson
They'll struggle to get anywhere asking for cash. Australians generally carry
little to no cash around

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HumanDrivenDev
Really?

As someone who has spent a long time in New Zealand it was striking to me how
many places you needed cash for in Australia. EFTPOS is not ubiquitous there
like it is here.

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willbw
New Zealand for whatever reason I used cash a lot too. Australia you can pay
stuff for small sums like $1 on card almost everywhere so no point to carry
cash most of the time

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LouisSayers
You can do the same in NZ - it’s called eftpos / PayPass (PayWave in Aus).
Cash is rarely needed in NZ if you’re a local.

If you only carry credit cards though you’re going to need some cash.

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madeofpalk
FWIW, PayPass and PayWave are the trademarked terms used by MasterCard and
Visa internationally (respectively) for contactless payment

