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Uber’s Manik Gupta Promoted as the Chief Product Officer

17Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Uber’s Manik Gupta Promoted as the Chief Product Officer

The ride hailing major Uber has promoted Manik Gupta as the chief product officer of the company who has been the interim product lead at Uber since the departure of Daniel Graf in April this year. Prior to that, he ran Uber's marketplace and maps product teams for three years where he was responsible for creating mapping solutions and marketplace technologies. This move has come at a time when Uber is transitioning itself from being a taxi hailing service to an end-to-end transportation service provider. He stated that riders can connect with a private car to get from point A to B, but the company can support other transportation modes, too. “My priorities are to leverage and refine the technology that powers our ridesharing experience to support our big bets like Eats, bikes, and sco...

15Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

After Lyft, Uber Launches its Loyalty Program Uber Rewards

Soon after ride-hailing service Lyft launched its loyalty program, Uber has also come up with Uber Rewards in nine cities before rolling out to the whole U.S. in the next few months, with points for scooters and bikes coming soon. Under this program, riders will earn points for all the money they spend on Uber and Uber Eats that score them $5 credits, upgrades tAo nicer cars, access to premium support and even flexible cancellations that waive the fee if they rebook within 15 minutes. Along with this, it retroactively counts your last six months of Uber activity to give you perks as soon as you sign up for free for Uber Rewards. The program has been currently launched in Miami, Denver, Tampa, New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego or anywhere in New Jersey. “As p...

Ola & Uber Fares Rose up by 15% in Last One Year

25Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Ola & Uber Fares Rose up by 15% in Last One Year

With the increasing demand of Ola and Uber these days, an average ride cost on Ola and Uber is up by 15% over the last one year. This has been presented as per estimates by research & advisory firm RedSeer. The company said this comes on top of a 10% increase in 2017. However, the figures that have been stated are a national average, and the actual changes may be different for different cities. The report did not provide the city-wise figures as Bengaluru users have reported significantly higher increases. According to the reports, the average cost per ride on these cab-hailing apps has risen to Rs 220, compared to around Rs 190 last year. Also, the incentives for drivers, which was used for several years to attract drivers to meet rising demand, saw a drop of over 30% in the las...

Uber Aims to Go Fully-Electric in London in 2025

24Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Uber Aims to Go Fully-Electric in London in 2025

The cab aggregator Uber has planned for every car on its taxi app in London to be fully electric in 2025, It would also add a clean air fee to each trip from early next year. The rapidly-expanding firm is simultaneously trying to appease regulators in key markets such as London, with initiatives such as on environmentally-friendly vehicles, as well as expanding into new areas ahead of a flotation. "It's going to be part of the family and how the capitalization looks like is something that we are ultimately open to but it is not an area of focus right now." Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, who pulled out of a Saudi conference after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, also said the firm would wait for answers about the incident before deciding how that might affect Saudi investm...

Uber Introduces VoIP Calling Feature on its Platform

20Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Uber Introduces VoIP Calling Feature on its Platform

The ride-hailing major Uber has come up with VoIP calling feature on its app which will allow users to call the driver (and vice-versa) over Wi-Fi. Thus, the next time you travel via Uber, you can book a ride without having a SIM card connection as well. This might really be helpful if the users wish to save on international roaming costs or if you don't have a working phone while you are traveling. In this case, the users can simply use Wi-Fi to contact the Uber driver. The Uber VoIP call is similar to any VoIP calling apps like WhatsApp, Skype, etc. Also, the users can make use of their mobile internet pack to make calls via Uber app. This will also help both the driver and the rider to be within the Uber app for an improved experience. Uber stated that the idea behind this is t...

Uber Expected to Reach the Valuation of $120 Billion Next Year

17Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Uber Expected to Reach the Valuation of $120 Billion Next Year

The global cab aggregator Uber has been growing at a great pace since its launch. The company is therefore, expected to be valued at valued at $120 billion when it finally goes public next year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley delivered the valuation proposals to Uber last month. Currently, the proposed valuation of the company is about $50 billion more than the company's most recent valuation, setting the stage for what would be one of the biggest listings ever. Uber and smaller rival Lyft's initial public offerings, both expected in 2019, will test investor tolerance for money losing technology unicorns. Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber stated that in September that Uber was on track for a 2019 IPO, adding that he was not concerned if Lyft went ...

Google’s Waze Expands Carpooling Service in the US

11Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

USA

Google’s Waze Expands Carpooling Service in the US

With the community-based GPS Navigation App called Waze, Google will start to offer its pay-to-carpool service throughout the US. This is a step towards reducing the commute-time congestion for which the app has been basically designed. This expansion is built upon a carpooling system that Waze began testing two years ago. Initially, it began in northern California and Israel before gradually extending it into Brazil and parts of 12 other states. Now, the service will be made available to all the users in the US. "We don't want to be a professional driving network," Waze founder and CEO Noam Bardi said. "We see ride-sharing as something that needs to become part of the daily commute. If we can't get people out of their cars, it won't be solving anything.” For the purpose of giving som...

You Can now Pay For Your Uber Rides Via Google Pay

28Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

You Can now Pay For Your Uber Rides Via Google Pay

Google’s digital payments platform Google Pay has partnered with Uber to let users pay for their Uber rides easily and seamlessly in India. Initially, the company has an offer in which users can also avail up to Rs. 1,000 when they use Google Pay for 10 Uber rides. This may toughen the competition for other payment platforms such as Paytm, PhonePe among others. Google has also announced that more than 22 million people in India are already using Google Pay on a monthly basis and over 1.2 million small businesses in India are using it to enable mobile payments. To make the use of Google Pay for your Uber rides, the users need to add Google Pay as a payment method on the Uber app. To do this, they need to go to the Payment section after tapping the hamburger icon from the top-left corn...

24Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Bangladesh-based Shohoz Raises $15 million in Pre-series B Funding

Bangladesh-based ride-hailing and ticketing platform Shohoz has reportedly secured funds amounting to $15 million in pre-series B financing round. This funding round was led by Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures. The other backers that participated in this round included Linear VC, 500 Startups and Singaporean angel investor Koh Boon Hwee. The funds so raised by the company are being planned to be used in the expansion of its services as well as to fight against rival Pathao. Also, it will use a part of the fresh capital for customer acquisition and retention and expand into other on-demand services. “Bus tickets will remain an important part of our business, [there’s] lots of synergy with ride-sharing,” CEO Maliha Quadir stated. “Dhaka has a super dense population with bad infrastruct...

Ride-Hailing Giant Eyeing to Acquire London-based Deliveroo

24Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Ride-Hailing Giant Eyeing to Acquire London-based Deliveroo

The international ride-hailing service provider Uber is in early talks to acquire food delivery company Deliveroo. The amount of the deal is unknown as of now, however, it has been stated that the offer would need to be considerably above Deliveroo's latest valuation. Deliveroo is a London-based food delivery company founded in 2013 by Americans Will Shu and Greg Orlowski. Last year, the company was valued at more than $2 billion after it raised $98 million from private investors. The deal is not sure to close and may fall apart because Deliveroo and its investors have been reluctant to relinquish independence. Uber has been growing in all segments and with its recent entry in the food delivery space with UberEats, this acquisition may help the company a lot. In Deliveroo, the orders...

Ola, Uber Saw Sharp Decline in the Growth of Daily Rides

24Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Ola, Uber Saw Sharp Decline in the Growth of Daily Rides

The two largest ride hailing services in India that are Ola and Uber, are witnessing a sharp slowdown in the growth of rides over the past year. This is the result of their steer toward operational efficiencies, cut customer discounts and driver incentives, and expand into newer verticals such as food delivery. Though the absolute number of daily rides has increased, growth declined to 20% on average in 2018 to 3.5 million across all its segments.“The market has dwindled owing to a higher base effect, as well as a plunge in supply and hike in fares,” said Jaspal Singh, founder of Valoriser Consultants, a transportation consulting firm.In 2017, Uber claimed to achieved 9.4 million trips a week (1.3 million a day), which represented a 67% growth in a span of 11 months. In 2018, CEO Dara Khos...

After UK and Australia, Ola is all set to Enter New Zealand

18Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

After UK and Australia, Ola is all set to Enter New Zealand

The homegrown cab aggregator Ola has been on an expansion spree lately and is expanding itself in various international regions including UK and Australia. Soon after this, the company announced its plans to enter the New Zealand market starting with Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. However, the date of launch has not been mentioned as of now. With this announcement, New Zealand becomes the third international market that Ola will enter into this year after rolling out its services in Australia in February and UK in August. For this purpose, the company has appointed Brian Dewil as Country Manager for New Zealand. “I’m excited to build the local team and business in New Zealand and provide a healthy contribution to the nation’s local mobility infrastructure”, said Brian Dewil, Co...