Ola tackled Uber's entry with guerrilla-like plan: Bhavish Aggarwal
Speaking at the IIT Bay Area Alumni meet in California (a transcript by the company), Bhavish Aggarwal said Uber was clearly ahead of Ola in terms of fund infusion but it never was able to gain a dominant market share.
India's biggest ride-hailing firm Ola countered American giant Uber's "carpet bombing" entry into the country with guerrilla warfare by going into nooks and corners to gain a significant market share, its Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal says.
Speaking at the IIT Bay Area Alumni meet in California (a transcript by the company) Bhavish said Uber was clearly ahead of Ola in terms of fund infusion but it never was able to gain a dominant market share.
Bhavish claimed when the "competition was at its peak, Uber was outspending us almost 5:1 to the dollar".
Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola
He went on to add, "Yet, we held on to our market share and even today we have 2:1 market share against our competition. They had to really out spend but were never really able to gain dominant market share in India."
Likening the company's strategy to guerrillas, he said Ola will "fight the nooks and corners" and win in the long term. Uber, However, has not responded to an email query.
Bhavish also recounted that when Uber entered India in 2013, Ola was a "tiny company" operating in two cities with a mere half a million dollars in the bank. "We did not have a huge head start against them in India ... (however) we were clear about our strengths... we know India better, we ended up building our business model customised around Indian reality," he noted.
Ola has since expanded beyond the top five to six cities to almost 200 cities and towns in India. The ride-hailing firm is all set to take the competition with Uber to the next level as it has recently announced setting up an Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) in San Francisco Bay.
