Uber’s New Rival in Australia: An Indian Upstart

In the Indian market, Ola does a few things better than Uber. For example, they have an OTP, which is a 4-digit numerical code you need to provide to the driver at the start of every ride. In a low-trust market like India, this is instrumental in helping certain people pre-pay for this sort of service. Secondly, they've long had more options than Uber in types of service they provide: ie, rickshaw, car rentals, etc. And finally, they've also recently introduced ola credit, which is really convenient for me as I take short, low-cost rides to and fro work, and credit is sufficient to allow me to pay at one go at the end of the week.

There is a perception that Ola has a lower quality of drivers in the Indian market, but I doubt such a thing would be replicated in Australia. That said, I've gotten quite a few stinkers from both services, so I'm sure that the bias in Indian middle/upper-middle classes against native companies plays strongly into the perception of Ola drivers as worse than Uber.

Ola has been a pretty interesting company. They have tried a lot of things like integrating auto ricks into their network (which Uber has copied now), including Wifi, on board entertainment, pool pass, membership rates etc. They even had boat service when Chennai (my city) was flooded. I wish them good luck!

(Sydney resident)

Taxify launched here in December with 50% off rides, people jumped on board and ditched Uber.

50% rides ended - everyone went back to Uber, including myself.

Can't seen this ending any differently unless Ola is significantly cheaper.

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Just tried to sign up for Ola and they couldn't even send me the verification text to sign up with.

Ola drivers are probably not on HN, which is a shame because that would have revealed a more balanced picture.

Ola drivers are often dealt a short end of the stick by Ola. Ola knows this, and gets away with it because many of the drivers come from a financial background where they do not have much of a choice. Drivers face ridiculous delays in getting paid their share of the ride, that is, if they get paid at all. You would often encounter Ola drivers insisting on getting paid by cash rather than Ola money.

Ola's software backend leaves a lot to be desired, losing track of money is quite frequent, used to be routine before.

I don't expect commentary from Ola drivers but hope some Ola engineers will comment on their engineering backend and culture: lack of work life balance, insane hours, continuous firefights to keep their service afloat, just about barely in spite of being staffed by way more engineers than Uber India.

Someone privy to the details claimed -- "The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all." I am not sure if things have changed, they are rolling in so much investor money that they really don't have strong incentives to.

It’s nice to get some competition for Uber.

In Melbourne we now have Taxify, Uber and GoCatch.

A forth in the mix would be great.

I'm guessing drivers will sign up to this along with Uber, Taxify and GoCatch and keep flicking between them or just use a bunch of phones with one acting as a hotspot. Which ever pays the best will take priority.

Some stats:

Taxify has had 130k downloads in the last 4 months. Ola is at 24k for about 1 month.

Far cry from Uber which does that in almost 2 days

In case, like me, you're unfamiliar with the term "Upstart" in this context. I found a few vague definitions that boil down to:

Startups are entrepreneurial businesses that start with external funding.

Upstarts are businesses that start without significant external funding.

Australians get ready for questions/requests like

a. Can you please cancel OLA ride and book a ride on Uber or vice versa? #incentives #UberOLATwosome

b. Cash or OLA Money?