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‘For Uber, India is a state of mind and…’: CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
The Iran-born executive is currently on a visit to the country.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who is currently on a visit to India, has described the country as ‘not only a market with enormous potential,’ but as a ‘state of mind' for the firm.
“The Indian customer is a demanding one, both in terms of service and price,” Khosroshahi, who took over as Uber's chief executive in August 2017, succeeding Travis Kalanick, the San Francisco-based company's co-founder, told The Economic Times.
He further described the country's digital public infrastructure – Aadhaar, payments systems (Unified Payments Interface/UPI) and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) – as ‘unique’ and ‘nothing like anywhere in the world.’
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“It is setting the stage for five to ten years of what will be (an) incredible innovation at scale, putting India in an enviable position, and one that we want to play a part in by innovating as well,” he told ET.
The Iran-born executive, 54, was then asked how Uber ‘makes it work in India.’ To this, he responded that one must be entrepreneurial, and build a service that is ‘super low-cost’ but 'delivers on the expectations.'
“One of our strengths is that we have big markets like the United States, Europe that are highly profitable, and this allows us to lean into places like India, that are not just high potential, but large as well,” the former Expedia CEO explained.
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The ride-hailing aggregator's market share here is ‘higher than probably ever,’ Khosrowshahi stated, adding that in the long term, the Indian market can be profitable for the company.
Saying that Uber has around 900,000 drivers across its businesses in India, Khosrowshahi noted how Brazil has more than one million (10 lakh) drivers associated with Uber, and he is ‘quite confident’ about reaching that mark in India as well.
Additionally, in terms of bookings, the country ranks in the top 10 for Uber, he revealed.
