The ride hailing market in India is shifting from a traditional, premium cab-first model to a bike and auto-rickshaw model with a focus on affordability and last-mile connectivity. In this interview, Prabhjeet Singh, president, India & South Asia, Uber, talks to Kartikay Kashyap about Uber’s recent investment of Rs 3,000 crore in India and how it is giving a push to its bike taxi services and the premium segment to continue its reign.
How do you think the year will pan out for Uber in India looking at the geopolitical volatility?
We are going through what I truly think is an inflection point for the mobility sector. We are seeing accelerated growth both in the affordable and premium ends of the market as Indian consumers are entering the category at a scale never seen before.
There are people wanting affordable first options, and there are a large set of consumers there who are far more discerning, and are looking for premium, reliable, and differentiated experiences. We are seeing growth at both ends of the spectrum. We are seeing growth also in the depths of the market. It is not just about the breadth of services.
We are seeing strong growth in smaller cities in the ecosystem, and we are looking to expand our footprint, particularly with affordable options like bike taxi as a large part of tier 2, tier 3 India embraces ride hailing. We want to be there to serve them in a way which they like. Our platform I also a flexible platform for gig workers.
We are adding more drivers to the platform each month than we have ever done in the history of the business, which shows that the value proposition of a more flexible work platform continues to resonate with the new India. In fact, we just hit 2 million active monthly drivers who are using the platform to earn a living.
What impact are you seeing on the business with the rising cost of fuel? Looking at the volatility in fossil fuels, will you increase your focus on expanding the EV fleet?
We are already the largest platform for electric vehicles, across four wheelers, three wheelers, and two wheelers. I think there’s a role which we play as a ride railing platform, to generate demand. But the vehicle manufacturers or OEMs should also make the vehicle available at the right price point to make it easy to finance the vehicle for the drivers.
We are also playing a role in developing the infrastructure, both, between public and private systems. We forged a partnership with the Jindal Group, who are building out multiple businesses for electric vehicles, and we are partnering with them to define the right vehicle and make it available in the Indian market for the right selling price.
Uber has recently decided to invest 3,000 crore in India. How do you plan to deploy this investment?
We don’t comment on specific numbers, but broadly we continue to see India as one of the most important global markets for Uber, which is very central to our speed of growth and innovation. India is the third largest market for Uber globally by trips, and we believe that it is a matter of time when it becomes the largest market.
We are seeing significant growth for a market with so much potential, and so much room for penetration. There are multiple parts of the business, where we continue to invest. We are seeing massive push on scaling our presence in the affordability space.
We are seeing significant traction to use bike taxis as a property. In fact, recently we had a campaign around IPL, which talks about the value proposition of affordability on a bike taxi. Secondly, we have seen growth in the premium segment as well.
We are making investments in expanding our institutional fleets as well – partnering with businesses. A lot is also happening on the tech side. We already have tech centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and we are expanding them at a rapid pace. This includes both full stack product design, AI use cases, and a lot more.
How do you plan to take on the rise of Rapido in the ride hailing sector?
Competition validates the opportunity. The fact that there are multiple players participating in specific categories suggests that everyone sees the opportunity and it gives us even more confidence to lean in. We want to focus on our game. It’s really not about being competitive.
We like to be competition aware, but not competition obsessed. For example, we are focused on our execution, our innovation, and differentiation. An example of this is we are not just innovating on bike taxis. As part of our ‘Daam Pachis’ campaign, we are talking to the youth of the country, being locally relevant to the core cultural nuances of India.
We are partnering with India’s digital public infrastructure. So the fact that today you can book metro tickets in five cities on the Uber app, and more to be added. This helps bring in a completely new audience to the category, and many of them use the bike taxi to go to the metro station, also then use the Uber app to book a Metro ticket, and vice versa.
How do you see the entrance of new private and government-led entities in the Indian mobility sector? Will the intensity to pull and retain customers increase?
Competition forces all incumbents to work harder. It forces incumbents to innovate more. We have seen multiple players can also expand access to a much larger audience. So, for example, if there are certain players in the market focusing on newer segments targeting to bring a new audience in the digital space, it expands the overall market.
So, I think we continue to feel good about our position and the choices we are making in such an important market. We are investing for the long term.
Looking at the present scenario, every player in the ride-hailing sector has a similar business model. How does Uber plan to position itself differently?
I don’t think we give an inch to any other player in the ecosystem, nor do we expect others to give us an inch. But what matters is playing to what is your real source of differentiation is. There are three for us. One, as a global tech company, we continue to make sure we are innovating not just for India, but we are innovating at a global scale.
For example, our innovation in bike taxis in India. We are shifting this innovation to emerging markets like Latin America, and vice versa. So that’s something which multiplies the pace of innovation, particularly on technology. Number two, we are the only player which is participating in market leadership positions across multiple spectrums of the mobility sector.
For example, you see us continuing to build a very strong place in the premium space, where we are leading with products like Uber Black. We offer a service called Uber Reserve today, where you can book an Uber and request it from anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 days in advance with a very high degree of assurance and reliability.
We are scaling products like Intercity rides. Third, if we are participating and partnering with India’s digital public infrastructure in a material way, whether it is going deep, whether it is leveraging UPI, I think those continue to give us space for innovation.
At a global level, Uber has encouraged and invested in AI tools across various departments. What is the state of AI adoption in India? What has been the ROI of these investments?
Simply the changes and disruptions in the technology ecosystem create opportunities for players both in the market and for our technology. We are seeing a lot of our engineers embracing AI tools to shift faster, improve their productivity. On the business side, we see many of our teams adopt AI tools usefully in a disciplined manner to improve the quality of service and experience. It is a journey which we are on, and again, this is not something which is dramatically brand new.