Ola, India’s ride-sharing company is expanding into the Australian market which is the firm’s first international venture. Ola is planning to first launch in Sydney before moving on to Melbourne and Perth. The firm says it will soon start recruiting drivers in those areas.
Currently, Uber dominates the Australian taxi-hailing app industry. It’s also Ola’s biggest rival in India.
Based in Bangalore, Ola was launched in 2011 and has since grown as more people use smartphones in India. Currently, Ola claims to have around 125 million users in India, with around one million drivers across the 110 cities that it services.
Ola is still waiting on the regulatory approval in Australia but promises “high-quality and affordable travel experiences.”
“We are very excited about launching Ola in Australia and see immense potential for the ride-sharing ecosystem which embraces new technology and innovation,” said Ola’s chief executive and co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal.
Japan’s Softbank has invested in both Uber and Ola. The Japanese bank recently led a consortium that bought a chunk of Uber.
Uber isn’t Ola’s only rival in Australia. Taxify, a European firm which expanding in Sydney late last year and Melbourne earlier this month will also give Ola a run for its money.
Statistics by research firm Roy Morgan says Uber is still the top competitor that Ola will have to keep an eye on. Uber provides almost four times the number of passengers it carried in the same period two years ago and its success isn’t going to slow.
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