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From cycles to waterways, Uber eyes many routes


NEW DELHI: Uber has launched a new app for drivers which claims to simplify earnings, works in low network areas and has multilingual capabilities. The company is also testing the Express Pool concept in a few cities and the pilot has been live for a couple of months, Uber’s new India and South Asia head Pradeep Parameswaran said.

“There has been a strategic shift in Uber from being a point-to-point car company to being an end-to-end transportation provider,” Parameswaran said. The company is considering all modes of transportation, be it waterways or cycles, he added. It also has launched a gender sensitisation campaign to its drivers.

He also said that electric vehicles is an investment that will move the narrative forward and added that India is the largest pool market globally. The company has also been doubling down on the Uber Eats business, which has been its fastest-growing business.

Reiterating its commitment to the India market and calling it intrinsic to Uber’s global growth, Parameswaran refuted merger talks with rival Ola and said that it is not interested in a “minority deal”.

“India is one of the highest priority markets for Uber, especially after the exit to Grab,” he said. Parameswaran, who took over from Amit Jain in June this year, added that there is a lot of product and technology investment which is happening in India with its center in Bengaluru being significantly ramped up. “So, we are not interested in any minority deal.”

The San Francisco-headquartered firm recently completed the milestone of touching one billion trips in the country and Parameswaran said that number of trips is not going down in the country and Uber has plans to “expand beyond the 31 cities it currently operates in.”

He however did not share a timeline for the expansion.

Uber, which has launched several Indiafirst innovations such as cash payments — which have been adopted in several global markets — is working on a set of new India first initiatives, said Parameswaran. while the company will soon nationally launch a feature called two-way call anonymisation, which will ensure that privacy of both the drivers as well as riders, it is also looking to collaborate with the government to fix lighting in poorly lit areas of the country.

Earlier this month, ET reported that both Uber and Ola are witnessing a sharp slowdown in the growth of rides as they steer the pedal towards operational efficiencies, cut down customer discounts and driver incentives, and expand to newer verticals like food delivery. In April 2018, CEO Dara Khoshrowshahi said Uber was clocking 10 million trips a week, representing a 7.6% growth in number of rides in 9 months.

Company Gets New Chief People Officer

Uber has hired Expedia’s former chief people officer Nikki Krishnamurthy as its new head of human resources. She will replace Liane Hornsey, who left Uber in early July after an internal investigation into how she handled racial discrimination claims.

Nikki Krishnamurthy worked with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at Expedia, while he was leading the company. She will oversee Uber’s human resources, recruiting, diversity and inclusion teams. “Nikki brings unparalleled experience in building a culture centered around transparency, respect and diversity,” Khosrowshahi said in a blog post.





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