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.
ber ride in Bangalore?
angaloreans must feel proud of this young man, Alok Shetty, who has now been named to be the Time 'Next Generation Leaders': Building Hope in India: Architect Alok Shetty is finding simple solutions to complex problems. His list of accolades is quite impressive, as can be seen from one of his company's — Bhumiputra Architecture — web pages.
