Uber India’s two-wheeler business is now its fastest-growing segment. The ride-hailing major is betting big on the category as it expands into B2B logistics through an ONDC partnership. In an interview with Anees Hussain, Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India, spoke about the company’s growth momentum and strategic priorities.
Edited excerpts:
Q: Why is two-wheeler the fastest growing segment for Uber India?
Two-wheelers have strong product-market fit in emerging markets like India—markets with higher congestion where consumers are value-conscious and looking for lower-price options. These are low-margin products. A bike trip is a dollar versus a car trip at four dollars. While we have very large cars and three-wheeler businesses, the two-wheeler category has tremendous headroom to grow. The pace at which you grow these categories is a function of economic choices, but we have the right ingredients and ambition to make a huge dent now. At our scale, even after 12 years of operations, we’re seeing overall growth in very high double digits. Last month, we added more new riders than ever in our India history. Our active earner base grew from one million last year to upwards of 1.5 million today. These indicate strong tailwinds for further growth.
Q: What is driving this growth momentum?
Three factors. First, a demographic shift—a massive influx of younger first-time riders going straight to digital platforms. Second, we continue to be vehicle-constrained as an industry, signaling much more demand exists. That’s why we’re working with fleets and creating vehicle financing solutions for independent drivers. Third, expansion into different form factors like bike-taxi is expanding the pie, bringing in consumers who may not have used Uber before.
Q: You’ve launched Uber Direct in partnership with ONDC. How does this work?
Uber Direct is our B2B logistics service where ONDC merchants like Zepto, KPN Fresh or KFC can choose Uber’s logistics network for last-mile delivery. We provide only the fulfillment layer while demand is initiated by merchants on their platforms. Drivers use the Uber app to get delivery requests. To begin with, supply will come largely from two-wheeler drivers,who see higher idle time beyond peak demand of 8-11 am and 4-7 pm. As the service builds we will consider other form factors.
Q: Are you planning to onboard merchants directly beyond ONDC?
For now, we’re focused on ONDC. We believe there’s massive headroom there as more merchants come online. Whether we expand to work directly with enterprises is something we’ll review in a couple of months once the experience stabilises.
Q: With Uber Direct, you’re entering a space with established players like Shadowfax and Delhivery. Are you considering inter-city logistics?
For now, we are very focused on intra-city delivery within city limits. We may have different form factors, including two-wheelers and three or four-wheelers through Courier XL, but all within intra-city operations. There’s so much opportunity here to participate in first.
Q: What’s the regulatory outlook, particularly on bike taxis?
In Karnataka, the bike-taxi matter is sub judice. But multiple states are recognising the positive value of bike-taxis for consumers, earners and cities. We welcome two landmark 2025 regulations—MVAG 2025 by the Ministry of Road and Transport, and the Code of Social Security for gig workers. Both create enabling frameworks while maintaining flexibility.
Q: There’s been debate around tax treatment of commission vs subscription based offerings. What’s your view on offering-based tax differentiation?
What’s important is transparency, consistency, and most importantly, a level playing field. Multiple platforms providing the same service shouldn’t have different tax treatments just because of minor tweaks in how parts of the service network work. It’s still the same service. We’ve provided our perspective to tax authorities and hope they’ll provide clarity in due course. We believe taking time for proper debate is important, but the principle should be consistency and fairness across all players.