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Ola Cabs

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Ola Cabs
Company typePrivate
Industry
Founded3 December 2010; 13 years ago (2010-12-03) in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
FounderBhavish Aggarwal
Ankit Bhati
Headquarters
Bangalore, Karnataka
,
India[1]
Area served
India, Australia, New Zealand, UK (169+ cities)
Key people
Bhavish Aggarwal (CEO)
Ankit Bhati (CTO)
ProductsMobile app, website
Services
Revenue₹758 crore (US$91 million)[2] (FY 2016)
 (2014-15)
Number of employees
6,000 (2017)
SubsidiariesFoodpanda India
WebsiteOla Cabs

Ola Cabs (stylised as OLΛ), is an Indian origin online transportation network company developed by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. As of September 2018, Ola was valued at $8 billion.[3]

Ola Cabs was founded on 3 December 2010 as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai, and is now based in Bangalore. As of 2018, the company has expanded to a network of more than 10,00,000 vehicles across 169 cities. In November 2014, Ola diversified to incorporate autorickshaws on a trial basis in Bangalore.[4] After the trial phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata starting in December 2014.

In January 2018, Ola extended into its first overseas market, Australia, and[5] in New Zealand in September 2018[6] It also has presence in UK.

History

In March 2014, Ola Cabs acquired Bengaluru based taxi service TaxiForSure for approximately ₹1,394 crore (US$200 million). [7] From 25 June 2015, Ola users gained access to TFS cabs via the Ola mobile application.[8] In November 2015, Ola acquired Geotagg, a trip-planning applications company, for an undisclosed sum.[9]

In December 2017, Ola acquired Foodpanda's business in India.[10] In April 2018, Ola made its second acquisition with Ridlr (formerly Traffline), a public transport ticketing app.[11]

In December 2018, Ola invested $100 million in scooter rent startup Vogo. Earlier this year Ola financed Series A of funding of the Vogo.[12]

Services

Ola offers different levels of service, ranging from economic to luxury travel.[13] The cabs are reserved through a mobile app and also through their website and the service accepts both cash and cashless payments with Ola money.[14] It claims to clock an average of more than 1,500,000 bookings per day and commands 60% of the market share in India.[15]

Criticism

Technology

Ola Cabs' technology came under criticism regarding the security of its mobile app. The API calls could be replayed to top up its wallet.[16]

In August 2016, a privacy breach occurred when customers' details such as names, phone numbers and addresses, in Bangalore, were received as SMS messages by an individual in Chennai. Although these unanticipated messages were reported to Ola, the company ignored them, even under the threat of being reported to the TRAI.[17] The issue was reportedly fixed three weeks later after receiving considerable media coverage and social media attention.[18]

Overcharging and transparency in charging

The refund policy of OlaCabs has been criticised because of charging errors caused by technical glitches in their system.[19]

Concerns of drivers

Ola from January 2017 has been highly criticised for continuously dropping the driver incentives which in turn is affecting driver-partner's monthly income. Most nowadays fail to cope up with their monthly EMIs and other dues. Daily income of cab drivers is now equal to auto drivers running in the city after deducting all dues.[20]

Charges comprise:

  • Base fare (fixed amount)
  • Distance fare (charged per kilometre)
  • Ride time fare (charged per time taken to travel)
  • Peak pricing (direct ratio depending on demand for cabs)[21]
  • GST (5%)
  • Toll charges (toll collection if crossing a toll junction)

Driver credibility

Panic button for passengers in an Ola car in Kolkata

Delhi Transport authority in early 2015 questioned the credibility and required verification of drivers working for Ola, along with other competitors such as Uber. The inquiry revealed that approximately 80% of drivers amongst all services did not possess permits to ply commercial transport services in Delhi.[22] Drivers also protested[23] outside the Kukatapally, Hyderabad office of Ola, demanding more transparency over payments.

Culture

Various reasons apart from gender diversity issues have caused a lot of attrition at Ola, called "ola's culture problem".[24]

References

  1. ^ Technologies, Olacabs - ANI. "About us - Car rental - car hire - taxi India - olacabs.com". www.olacabs.com.
  2. ^ "Ola losses tripled to Rs2,313 crore during 2015-16 on discounts, driver incentives". Mint. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  3. ^ Sugden, Joanna (27 September 2018). "Ola in funding talks with Naspers at a valuation of $7-8 billion". Live Mint. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  4. ^ "Now Book Auto Rickshaws in Bangalore via Ola Cabs". NDTV Gadgets. 20 November 2014.
  5. ^ Shankar, Shashwati; Chanchani, Madhav (1 May 2017). "Ola's revenue surges seven-fold, but loss widens to Rs 2,313.66 crore in FY16" – via The Economic Times.
  6. ^ "India's Ola forays into New Zealand in latest overseas push". Reuters. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  7. ^ Shrivastava, Aditi (29 January 2015). "Olacabs to buy TaxiForSure to take on competitors like Uber; deal likely at Rs 1,250 crore". The Economic Times.
  8. ^ Mandal, Suchayan (25 June 2015). "Ola cabs app and Taxi For Sure get into a relationship. Twitter trolls prove how complex it is". Business Insider India.
  9. ^ Russell, Jon (17 August 2016). "Ola confirms it has shut down TaxiForSure, the rival it acquired for $200M". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ Russell, Jon (18 December 2017). "Uber rival Ola buys Foodpanda India to get into food deliveries". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  11. ^ Chaudhary, Suman (3 April 2018). "Ola Acquires Mumbai-based Public Transport Ticketing App Ridlr". IndianWeb2. IndianWeb2.com. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  12. ^ "Ola, Uber's India rival, invests $100M in scooter rental startup Vogo". TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  13. ^ "Ola aims to counter Uber with its Biz-class service". The Economic Times. 2 September 2014.
  14. ^ "Pay gas and electricity bills with Ola Money". FactorDaily. 28 November 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  15. ^ Abudheen, Sainul K (19 November 2014). "Ola now has $250-300M annual gross transaction run rate; peek at its numbers - VCCircle". VCCircle.com.
  16. ^ Aggarwal, Varun; Murali, Malavika (20 March 2015). "Taxi aggregator Ola hit by tech glitches that allow free rides". The Economic Times.
  17. ^ Anand, Kunal (30 August 2015). "Ola Cabs Accidentally Reveals Customer Data To Chennai Girl, And Doesn't Care". Indiatimes.com.
  18. ^ "Ola leaked its customers data, claims user; company blames manual error". The Indian Express. 1 September 2015.
  19. ^ "Decoding OLA Cabs Billing Issues – Ola ka Gola!". Trak.in. 13 May 2015.
  20. ^ "Ola, Uber cut driver pay by a third in 1 year". economictimes.com. 18 September 2017.
  21. ^ "4: Peak Pricing [Direct Ratio depending on demand for cabs]".
  22. ^ "80% of Uber, Ola does not have permits to ply in Delhi, says minister". The Indian Express. 19 June 2015.
  23. ^ Reddy (30 December 2016). "Cab Drivers Attack Ola Office in Kukatpally". Newshub. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  24. ^ "Ola's culture problem". FactorDaily. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
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