ber,
the Silicon Valley startup transportation company that recently raised a capital of $1.2B at a "post-money" valuation of $18.2B, has transportation services that serves the city of Bangalore, along with other prominent Indian cities.
What is interesting about this startup company? According to CEO Travis Kalanick:
"So what is that vision?… It’s a reflection of our mission to turn ground transportation into a seamless service. Basically make car ownership a thing of the past…"
Make car ownership a thing of the past. Wow! With
cloud computing, we have made, for most enterprises (and people), "big" computer ownership a thing of the past. With streaming music and video, we have CD and DVD ownership a thing of the past. Now, entrepreneurs are working to make car ownership a thing of the past. Nice. What is next? I digressed.
Having experienced the Uber service in the United States, and as a frequent visitor to Bangalore, it was necessary for me to conduct an exercise of comparison between
Uber, and a particular taxi service I have used in Bangalore,
Meru Cabs.
From the screenshot you see at left, of
a page from Meru Cabs' web site, you can see the following:
Rate for first 4 km = ₹80
Rate after 4 km = ₹19.50/km
So, for a 40 km ride, say from the airport, you would incur a fare of ₹80 + (40-4)*₹19.50 = ₹782.
The UberBLACK service, which is somewhat similar and whose screenshot you see on the right, has the following tariffs in Bangalore:
Base fare = ₹80 (irrespective of total distance)
Time component = ₹2/minute
Distance component = ₹18/km
So, for a 40 km ride, involving 1 hour, then, you would have a total fare of ₹80 + 2*60 + 40*₹18 = ₹920.
If you are able to avail of the service when certain discounts are offered — say of 49% between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm as seen by the tweet on the Uber screenshot — you could incur only 51%*₹920 = ₹470. And, Meru charges a slightly higher rate, between midnight and 6:00 am.
Thus, the power of social networking may provide Uber a slight advantage of being able to attract a larger number of customers provided, of course, you can make use of social networking as you land in Bangalore.
Of course, the comparison may not be perfect; but, nevertheless, it is useful to have this comparison in mind.
n January 9, 1915,
a 45-year old M. K. Gandhi set foot in India after an extraordinary run-in with the South African government. Through a no less extraordinary journey in the next decades, he would be instrumental in the freeing of India from British rule. Mahatma Gandhi is highly, and deservedly, regarded as the greatest Pravasi — प्रवासी — and, since 2004, the Government of India has been sponsoring a yearly convention of प्रवासी भारतीयs, or non-resident Indians (NRIs).
esterday's Uber ride from Bangalore South to Bangalore North leaves me with the impression that Uber rides have made great progress since 
