Ola Cabs

Ola
Private
Industry Transport
Founded Bangalore, Karnataka, India (3 December 2010 (2010-12-03))
Founders
  • Bhavish Aggarwal
  • Ankit Bhati
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Key people
  • Bhavish Aggarwal (CEO)
  • Ankit Bhati (CTO)
Services Taxi, vehicles for hire
Owner ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd
Number of employees
 7000 (2015)
Slogan ChaloNiklo
Website https://www.olacabs.com/

OlaCabs, commonly known as Ola, is an Indian transportation network company. Ola started as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai, now based out in Bangalore and is among the fastest growing businesses in India. It is working on the business model used by the likes of behemoths like Uber.

It was founded on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal (currently CEO) and Ankit Bhati. By 2014, the company has expanded to a network of more than 200,000 cars across 85 cities. In November 2014, Ola expanded to incorporate autos on-trial basis in Bangalore.[1] Post the trial phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune and Chennai starting December 2014. In December 2015, Ola expanded it's auto services in Chandigarh, Indore & Jaipur. Ola was valued at $5 billion as of September 2015.

Service

Ola provides different types of cab service ranging from economic to luxury travel.[2] The cabs are reserved through a mobile app. This cab service supports both cash and cashless payment options with Ola money. It claims to clock an average of more than 150,000 bookings per day and commands 60 percent of the market share in India.[3] November 2014 Ola also started on-demand auto rickshaw service on its mobile app in Bangalore, Pune and few other cities.

In October 2015, Company claimed to have 80 percent of the taxi market share in India,

Ola started more services such as Ola Cafe, Ola Store, Ola Shuttle, Ola Money and Ola Corporate.[4]

Ola has been in the news all through this year. From raising big bucks (details below) at growing valuations (the company is currently valued at around $5 Bn) to launching a slew of different offerings such as its ride sharing service called Ola Share in Delhi NCR to its Shuttle service called Ola Shuttle. The company also engaged in multiple partnerships tostrengthen its business

  1. Strategic partnership with China’s Didi Kuaidi, US-based Lyft and Malaysia’s GrabTaxi, which will allow passengers to book rides on any of these four services using just one app.
  2. Partnership with customer-based chat services company, Haptik, which will allow users to book Ola cabs through instant messaging on the Haptik mobile app.
  3. Partnership with MapMyIndia.

Acquisitions

Employee relations

In cooperation with Avanti Learning Centres, drivers who are associated with Ola can get their children studying in the ninth and tenth standard to the learning centre and avail free education.

Ola Gurukul will start off with a batch of 500 students in Mumbai. The initiative will be extended to provide free stationary, books and other apparatus for the top performing students. The student’s program will be held after school so that the students get the much needed attention while also saving on tuition classes costs.[7]

Criticism

Technology

OlaCabs' technology came under criticism regarding the security of its mobile app. The API calls could be replayed to top up its wallet.[8]

In August 2015, a privacy breach had occurred when intended customers' details such as names, phone numbers and addresses, in Bangalore, were received as SMS messages by an individual in Chennai. Although these unanticipated messages were reported to Ola, the company had chosen to ignore them, even under the threat of being reported to the TRAI.[9] The issue was reportedly fixed three weeks later after receiving considerable media coverage and social media attention.[10]

Over billing and transparency in billing

The refund policy of OlaCabs has been criticised because of billing errors caused by technical glitches in their system.[11] Hackers have claimed that they have been able to hack OlaCabs system and access customer data including credit card/debit card information.

Driver Credibility

The Delhi Transport authority in early 2015 questioned the credibility and required verification of drivers plying Ola cabs, along with other competitors like Uber. The inquiry has revealed that approximately 80% of drivers amongst all services did not possess permits to ply commercial transport services in Delhi.[12]

Awards and recognition

Ola bags Startup of The Year award in Economic Times Startup Awards 2015.

References

  1. ↑ "Now Book Auto Rickshaws in Bangalore via Ola Cabs". NDTV Gadgets.
  2. ↑ "Ola aims to counter Uber with its Biz-class service". timesofindia-economictimes.
  3. ↑ "Ola now has $250-300M annual gross transaction run rate; peek at its numbers - VCCircle". vccircle.com.
  4. ↑ "Ola launches ‘Ola Corporate’ for corporate travellers". The Indian Express. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  5. ↑ "Olacabs to buy TaxiForSure to take on competitors like Uber; deal likely at Rs 1,250 crore". timesofindia-economictimes.
  6. ↑ "Ola cabs app and Taxi For Sure get into a relationship. Twitter trolls prove how complex it is". Business Insider.
  7. ↑ "Ola Cabs will educate driver’s children". http://www.india.com/. Retrieved 2015-09-10. External link in |website= (help)
  8. ↑ "Taxi aggregator Ola hit by tech glitches that allow free rides". timesofindia-economictimes.
  9. ↑ "Ola Cabs Accidentally Reveals Customer Data To Chennai Girl, And Doesn't Care". Indiatimes. 30 August 2015.
  10. ↑ "Ola leaked its customers data, claims user; company blames manual error". The Indian Express. 1 September 2015.
  11. ↑ http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/05/13/ola-billing-issues/
  12. ↑ "80% of Uber, Ola cabs don’t have permits to ply in Delhi, says minister". The Indian Express.
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