According to the Financial Times, Uber is planning to make an investment of $1 billion in India targeting as much as 1 million riders per day in the sub-continent.
Uber was banned in New Delhi, the capital of India. Now just a few days after the ban has been withdrawn we are informed about the current intentions of the online taxi hailing service.
So, what’s the current situation of Uber and how will they execute their plans?
Well, currently 18 cities in India has Uber services. So to attain their desire of 1 million riders a day, they need to expand their base territory. This should not come as a surprise as via these 18 cities their daily gross is only 200000 passengers.
There are roughly 1609 cities and towns in India but many of them are underdeveloped or poor and an online taxi service isn’t quite practical in such locations.
Though the company has a large domain to target but other steps are also necessary.
The report by Financial Times says that the company has to pour much of its investments into the product, hiring, and payment.
It has also been estimated that a major portion of the investment has to be poured to further expand the grants which Uber uses to attract first-time passengers as well as new drivers.
Uber’s current plans for expansion will face controversy and might be subject to new restrictions.
The reason Uber was banned from New Delhi, as stated earlier is due to a sexual assault on a passenger by an Uber driver.
So Uber is basically starting their expansion with a damaging reputation. Though to tackle this they have included a new safety feature to their app entitled for the passengers.
