As the battle for Indian cab aggregation market turns intense, cab aggregators are coming up with new offerings to attain leadership. Along those lines, Ola has today introduced hourly rental service for its cabs, making sure it remains one feature up, as compared to its biggest rival Uber.
This is however, a contrasting move from Ola’s current core offering which enables users to move from one point to another on an on-demand basis. The news first came from LiveMint. While it is reported that the hourly rental service is now available, it is not yet known which cities will have this new service.
This move from the company is definitely aimed at increasing Ola’s offering. The company has been exploring new services to offer to users. Going by Ola’s portfolio of services, it seems that it is aiming to cover the entire road transportation segment.
While Ola is still experimenting with its business model, Uber has been focused on its core offering of on-demand cab aggregation. However, it is now considering to offer schedule rides, which the former has been providing since quite some time.
Race to become a market leader
While Ola already has its own wallet service. Uber does not have one yet. However, if the latest reports are to be believed, then Uber is open to idea of launching its wallet service in India. But, there is still an air of uncertainty about whether it will ditch PayTM in the process or not.
The ride-hailing service has also piloted an outstation service in Delhi, which enables it to use diesel cars on its platform. The diesel taxis are banned in Delhi. The service has also been expanded to other major cities as well.
Earlier in March, it had introduced Ola Micro, its cheapest cab hailing service, which starts at just Rs. 6 per km. While Uber had UberGo starting at Rs. 7 per km, it recently slashed its pricing upto 22% to take on the former’s Micro alternative.
But, not every offering from Ola is working out for them. It tried its hands at logistics and food delivery business as well as grocery delivery services. However, the company shut down both services earlier this year to focus on its core offerings.
The company has recently launched luxury car lineup and is soon going to start post-paid subscription service on its platform. Truecaller’s calling data has also revealed that Ola is far ahead of Uber in India.
Founded in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola has raised more than $1 billion in 7 funding rounds from 19 investors. In March, it had acquired Qarth, which has developed a mobile payment application.
