In the Indian market, Ola does a few things better than Uber. For example, they have an OTP, which is a 4-digit numerical code you need to provide to the driver at the start of every ride. In a low-trust market like India, this is instrumental in helping certain people pre-pay for this sort of service. Secondly, they've long had more options than Uber in types of service they provide: ie, rickshaw, car rentals, etc. And finally, they've also recently introduced ola credit, which is really convenient for me as I take short, low-cost rides to and fro work, and credit is sufficient to allow me to pay at one go at the end of the week.
There is a perception that Ola has a lower quality of drivers in the Indian market, but I doubt such a thing would be replicated in Australia. That said, I've gotten quite a few stinkers from both services, so I'm sure that the bias in Indian middle/upper-middle classes against native companies plays strongly into the perception of Ola drivers as worse than Uber.
Ola was by far more interesting and cheaper, but.. unavailable to me without local colleagues helping me. To sign up you needed an Indian mobile number (I brought a German and a Singaporean..). Unfortunate.
Painting with broad strokes much? Surely there are more reasons for the low-trust-ness than "the whole country is dedicated to conning the rest of the country"?
Ola has been a pretty interesting company. They have tried a lot of things like integrating auto ricks into their network (which Uber has copied now), including Wifi, on board entertainment, pool pass, membership rates etc. They even had boat service when Chennai (my city) was flooded. I wish them good luck!
In India, Ola also seems to have nicer car models than Uber, at least at the cheapest price point without sharing your ride with a stranger. Coupled with the wi-fi and the entertainment system (to put on whatever of the limited Apple Music set you choose) made most of my friends in Bangalore prefer it.
Ola also always more expensive than Uber when I was in India for a few weeks. And another anecdotal feedback is all of my friends felt Uber had better crop of drivers and service than Ola.
Personally, I agree with this. Never had a good experience with Ola (tried few times). Been riding with Uber since its introduction in India, starting with the very limited/costly option and now the most optimal "Premier". Never used sharing, so no experience with that.
I usually talk to the drivers; they tend to drive for both Ola and Uber. Most of them seem to have a better earning with Uber.
One of the key thing limiting me even trying Ola is that they have their own in-house Payment/Wallet system and no integration with a more common one such as PayTM. With Uber, I can PayTM as my default and do not worry about Credit Card PIN -- just ride, thank the driver and walk out.
Nonetheless, I would still wish Ola the very best. We need more competition and even better services from all providers.
I am the grand parent poster - have stopped using Ola as Uber drivers are more predictable. Also they have weird KYC requirements and wanted to send physical documents for Ola Money, blocking my money without that.
And that one. I did my PayTM KYC long before Aadhaar became the silver bullet. PayTM have the ₹10,000 limit per month without the KYC and my Uber bill usually got exhausted by the middle of the month. Heck, I can use the same PayTM balance to eat corn on the streets.
I have usually found Uber to be cheaper in Bangalore. Also in my experience, I find car/drivers better for Uber compared to Ola. I have never tried the wifi or entertainment systems.
Counter-anecdote: when Taxify started up, it was impossible to hail them where I lived in the Inner West. But I grabbed on yesterday on the way to the airport, it was at my house in 2 minutes, and the driver told me he now drives for Taxify exclusively -- it's still a bit cheaper for riders and the drivers make more. All that said, when Uber surges hard, finding a Taxify car is impossible since most drivers use both.
Anyway, I've signed up for Ola and just got coupons for three free rides up to $25. The more competition and the larger the bonfires of VC money, the merrier!
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that there is competition but the vast majority of people just care about a car that turns up on time and doesn't cost them a fortune.
If Taxify/Ola aren't doing anything majorly different from Uber then there's no reason for people to switch away from a service that proven to work.
Ola drivers are probably not on HN, which is a shame because that would have revealed a more balanced picture.
Ola drivers are often dealt a short end of the stick by Ola. Ola knows this, and gets away with it because many of the drivers come from a financial background where they do not have much of a choice. Drivers face ridiculous delays in getting paid their share of the ride, that is, if they get paid at all. You would often encounter Ola drivers insisting on getting paid by cash rather than Ola money.
Ola's software backend leaves a lot to be desired, losing track of money is quite frequent, used to be routine before.
I don't expect commentary from Ola drivers but hope some Ola engineers will comment on their engineering backend and culture: lack of work life balance, insane hours, continuous firefights to keep their service afloat, just about barely in spite of being staffed by way more engineers than Uber India.
Someone privy to the details claimed -- "The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all." I am not sure if things have changed, they are rolling in so much investor money that they really don't have strong incentives to.
I'm guessing drivers will sign up to this along with Uber, Taxify and GoCatch and keep flicking between them or just use a bunch of phones with one acting as a hotspot. Which ever pays the best will take priority.
Interesting. I thought this word is often used by incumbents to look down at the newcomer. English is not my first language so it's good to learn these subtleties.
To me it does come off as vaguely negative - in context, perhaps hinting at skepticism of whether the company will succeed in overtaking Uber. But if so, only mildly; the word definitely has its positive connotations too.
Not really - rebel also has a slightly negative connotation.
How it sounds of depends if you are the empire, a Jedi or a sports fan.
In general I’ve seen ola fight tooth and nail against Uber by focusing on the vagaries and niches of the Indian market.
They took the fight to the a much stronger competitor. They couldn’t win on just funding advantages so kept carving out areas which Uber has not considered.
I’m betting Uber learnt a lot from that fight.
Let’s see how they fare in Australia. Wishing them
Well.
I haven't carried cash or wallet for about a year now. All I use is my phone (CommBank app, which uses PayPass network). Whether it's a coffee, snack for my kid, weekly shopping or a night out, I can barely even remember the times I've been caught out. Maybe twice in a year. Only times I take my wallet out the door is if I'm driving (I live in Melbourne and mostly walk or take trams) or going to the Doctors or something that requires ID/Medicare.
Food trucks, weekend markets, everyone has an EFTPOS/MPOS or CommBank tablet in their business now.
Out of curiosity, where do you keep your myki? It's the one thing that ties me to carrying around a thing that can hold my cards.
I don't carry cash, and quite often don't even carry my wallet, but I need somewhere to stash my myki if I'm taking the train & tram to work. Given that it may have anywhere between $100 and $1500 worth of value on it at a time, I don't really just want to throw it in a pocket.
I think your parent poster was stposting. I doubt Ola will allow cash payments in Aus. In India lot of people carry cash hence they allow cash payments from what I've heard.
As someone who has spent a long time in New Zealand it was striking to me how many places you needed cash for in Australia. EFTPOS is not ubiquitous there like it is here.
I would hazard a guess you could make 99.5% of transactions with EFTPOS in NZ - the exceptions might be a few vendors at farmers markets (most take EFTPOS), sausage sizzles/ad-hoc fundraisers, fruit honesty boxes on the side of the road, etc. Maybe only 85% would take credit/debit, though.
From my experience in sydney/melbourne more places take credit/debit than NZ but also more places are cash only. Not as much penetration for EFTPOS.
I was in Canberra for a week late last year and I never used cash, everywhere took debit cards. Some had a surcharge for using debit over eftpos but I didn't see any shops or restaurants that were cash only. Market stalls were, unlike in NZ where mobile EFTPOS is almost everywhere.
It depends on when you were in Australia. EFTPOS fees for small amounts were essentially outlawed a year or so ago. That has made a big difference to pushing the final hold-out businesses into cashless in the last few months.
New Zealand for whatever reason I used cash a lot too. Australia you can pay stuff for small sums like $1 on card almost everywhere so no point to carry cash most of the time
NZ's government thinks (or thought, it's changed recently) that the market would sort it out so the current rates are up to 3% for credit and 1.5% for debit, again Mastercard's list is here: https://www.mastercard.co.nz/en-nz/about-mastercard/what-we-...
EFTPOS transaction are generally fee-free for all parties.
I absolutely love exploring all the food and coffee around Melbourne and I can't even remember the last one that didn't take PayPass. Even the market stalls and coffee carts have an MPOS or CBA tablet. Maybe a couple of super hipster places take cash only for the image, but I haven't actually found one yet.
In my experience it's rather the anti-hipster places: cheap Chinese dumplings, Vietnamese noodles etc, typically family run with minimal decor, overhead, wages, cleanliness and tax payments (much easier to underreport cash-only earnings). But often great food if you pick a busy place!
I'd say those businesses will have to evolve or die out. There is a great Japanese place in our town that I stopped frequenting purely because they didn't have an EFTPOS machine, and I often have to cash on me when returning from a customer visit etc. and I wanted a snack to bring home. Since they (finally) installed one after new owners took over, I go back there frequently now.
With PayWave becoming so popular for even $1 transactions at the counter by literally waving your debit card at a machine, I haven't carried significant cash in my wallet for years now.
When they say “cash only” everyone seems to understand it means “we dodge our taxes”. But the food is usually pretty cheap. I’d say they probably won’t evolve unless they start getting prosecuted for tax avoidance...
I totally understand the undercurrent of the 'cash only' operators - but I think that there will always be a portion of your customers who will use cash (travelling tourists etc.) as well as a large chunk who will want to use some form of electronic payment.
Far better for a business IMO to offer both - then they can still pocket most of the cash transactions without declaring, yet still show legitimacy to the ATO by having electronic payment records, which should keep the auditors at bay.
Our town is popular for market and pop up stalls all over the place, and while these used to be cash only for nearly as long as I have lived here, I have been noticing that a lot of them now have portable EFTPOS machines, or smartphones connected to Square or other payment swipers. Especially those that sell clothing or items >$20 because locals just don't seem to carry large notes around any more on a casual basis.
With all due respect, I'd say this is definitely a product of your specific location/life circumstances. I live in one of the biggest cities in North America and "cash only" is not a hurdle for restaurants here.
This forum is not like reddit for snarky/sarcastic comments. OLA folks are smart enough to cater to each individual local market. And all the drivers will be from local cities there.
There is a perception that Ola has a lower quality of drivers in the Indian market, but I doubt such a thing would be replicated in Australia. That said, I've gotten quite a few stinkers from both services, so I'm sure that the bias in Indian middle/upper-middle classes against native companies plays strongly into the perception of Ola drivers as worse than Uber.