Is Uber Stepping Up Its Game to Fight Ola in India? Uber has restructured its corporate holdings to bring its cab and food delivery business under Uber India Systems
By Shreya Ganguly •
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A Statista report revealed that the ride-hailing segment recorded a revenue of $30,360 million in 2019 which is expected to grow at an annual rate of 15.5 per cent leading to a market volume of $54,097 million by 2023. Currently, Ola and Uber are locking horns to stand on the top position in India.
At a time when media reports state that Ola's parent firm ANI Technologies is looking to list itself within two years after becoming profitable, The Economic Times has reported that global ride-hailing giant Uber has restructured its corporate holdings to bring its India cab and food delivery business under Uber India Systems.
According to the report, prior to this, Uber's ride-hailing and food delivery business was a part of Uber BV, a private limited liability company which is registered in the Netherlands. With this, Uber's agreements with restaurants and payouts which were sent via the Netherlands-based company will be shifted to India. The rides business will be invoiced out of India as well in the future. Citing anonymous sources, the report added that this move is aimed at making Uber's operations "legally sound without any ambiguity". The restructure business operation were made live on October 1.
This development comes at a time when media reports revealed that Ola is looking to list itself on BSE or NSE. According to a report by LiveMint, with the IPO, Ola's investors including SoftBank may exit or partially sell their stakes.
Ola or Uber: Who Will Win The Top Spot
Ola and Uber have been major rivals with Bengaluru-based Ola looking to competing with US-based Uber on the international level. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had said that India is one of its biggest markets for ride-sharing services.
Meanwhile, Ola is looking to expand its services internationally. According to media reports, Ola had already earmarked $60 Mn for launching services across the globe. It has already forayed into Australia, New Zealand and UK markets where Uber is a market dominator.
Apart from this, both the companies are looking to diversify for portfolios beyond cab business. While Ola launched its credit card in partnership with SBI in May, the US-headquartered rival is looking Uber forayed into on-demand staffing space and launched a new app called Uber Works to match shift workers with the available shifts.
Uber's Disappointing IPO
At a time when Ola is looking to list itself, Uber had a disappointing run for the IPO. In May, Uber had opened its first day of trading with an initial public offering price of $45 but it fell by 7.7 per cent to $41.52 at the end of the day.
The company had raised $8.6 billion through the IPO. According to reports by Business Insider, 180 million shares were sold during the offering which should have raised $12.8 billion for the company.
