Given how much we have been talking about Uber in class, this article seemed interesting. Uber has been operating in India since 2014, and while it is not the country's largest share riding service (that belongs to a local company, Ola) it has quickly taken up 40% of the market, becoming the third largest market for Uber behind the United States and China.
While Uber has been operating in many different countries with widely different cultures and mobile infrastructure conditions, India has proven to be one of the most challenging. The company has made several changes to the app to deal with the spotty mobile connections and significantly higher data charges. For example, the app estimates rate calculations during times when signal is weak and updates whenever a stronger one is acquired and rather than streaming driver locations to customers as they wait for their drivers, the app will send text messages instead to avoid the data costs. The Indian market has also allowed for the application of other business techniques it has already learned abroad, like allowing customers to pay with cash and still collecting its cut from drivers.
I think all of this is significant for two reasons. The first is that it shows how far Uber has come in such a short amount of time. To be honest I still haven't had a chance to use the service but constantly seeing it in the news makes it difficult to ignore. The second significance is the implications this has on IT in India. The country has long been known as a source of cheap technology outsourcing rather than as an explicit market for it, and I think it will be interesting to see how both American companies continue to invest there as well as what kinds of domestic IT companies form.
http://www.wired.com/2016/02/ubers-india-learn-rule-rest-world/
Good article and point of view. Uber is very good at being flexible because they have leverage with their market share, and really need large markets that India provides.
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