Introduction to the

Company

UpGrad Product Management Competitor Analysis – Indian Cab Industry

Student Name: Snehil

Acting as a PM at Meru Cabs

• Competitor Identification

• Background Analysis

• Business Model Analysis

• Strengths and Weaknesses

• Product Analysis and Performance

• Predict Future Initiatives

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Contents

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Competitor Identification

ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd., operating under the trade name Ola, will stand as the top

competitor as they are the leading the charts with 70% market share. They have been

operating in this space since 2010 and have seen tremendous growth since then.

Ola started with app booking and call center booking, but later on followed the ‘app

only’ path.

Direct Competitors (DC) Ola Cabs Uber

Indirect Competitors (IDC) City Bus or Auto Metro Rail

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Background Analysiscabs was founded by two alumni from IIT Bombay in 2010. They started from

Mumbai to solve the city’s transport woes. The company now provides services in 100

cities. At present they claim to clock 200,000 bookings per day.

cabs was founded by a Serial Entrepreneur, Neeraj Gupta in March, 2007 with 30

taxis. Today, Meru provides services in 24 Indian cities (18 Metros) with a fleet of

20,000 cabs and claims to have a consumer base of 5 Million.

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Background Analysis Contd..a. Goals & Mission :

With a mission to have a marketplace for all types of cabs and car rentals, Ola has

come a long way from where they started. The vision behind Ola cabs is to provide

hassle-free, reliable and technology-efficient car rental service to Indians. Today Ola is

the biggest player in Indian cab industry and it aims to continue with the same. Ola has

also entered the B2B segment with ‘Ola corporate’ and ‘Ola Operator’ app.

Meru has a goal to deliver reliable taxi service by focusing on pain areas of the

customers. It offers unshakeable reliability and character which is also a core value of

the company. It also claims to provide best-in-class service & 90% customer

satisfaction in 3rd party audits.

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Background Analysis contd..b. Strategy :

• Manage bookings, customer calls, tracking &‘fair fares’ to woo the customer

• To keep drivers happy by offering good incentives (up to INR 1.5 Lakhs in early days)

• Only chose cabs with All India Permit to reap on both intra and inter-city benefits.

• Lure customer with attractive fares and amazing offers.

• Acquired TaxiForSure in March 2015, for $200 Million, to gain 80 % market share.

• Leveraged the smartphone revolution and reach more than 90% App bookings.

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Background Analysis contd..

• Advantage of first entrant in the radio taxi space & solve customer’s pain point.

• Trust Factor built amongst users through quality service and trained drivers.

• Launched ‘Meru Genie’ at the right time to cope up with competitive pricing.

• Completely revamped Mobile App to give users a totally new experience.

• Trying to make a mark as the best Airport Taxi.

• Owns 50% of the fleet and help partner drivers get loan and insurance.

“We are adding SUVs, sedans and hatchbacks as a separate service through the mobile app. The

pricing is also competitive, in line with other services available in the market” – Meru Cabs CEO

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Background Analysis contd..

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Nov-15 Apr-15 Jul-14 Oct-14 Apr-12 Dec-15

Baillie Gifford DST Global Sequoia andSteadview Capital

Softbank Capital Tiger GlobalManagement

Vanguard

$5.00

$2,500.00

$210.00$400.00$500.00

$57.30

Series G

Series F

Series E

Series D

Series C

Series A

In Millions

$0.00

$10.00

$20.00

$30.00

$40.00

$50.00

Jun-16 Mar-15

Brand Capital India Value Fund

$25.00

$50.00

In Millions

Ola is presently valued at $5 Billion

c. Finances :

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Background Analysis contd..d. Products :

Apart from its cab categories and e-wallet, Ola also has Ola select privilege program &

Ola Corporate. All this is made possible by its mobile applications.

Meru brings instant and advance cab booking supported by its mobile App and website.

It also offers various e-wallet payment options. ‘Fare Exactometer’ is considered to be its

USP.

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Background Analysis contd..Brand/Parameters e. Market f. Employees

Users who need to book inter-city or outstation cabs

through their mobile application.

“The entire mobility space is our market”

- Bhavish Aggarwal

5000

Users in need of instant or ‘book later’ cabs and also the

users looking to pay a premium price for better service

and reliability.

Users who like transparent pricing and want to do away

with surge prices.

1000+

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Business Model Analysis a. Revenue Models :

Marketplace model

X % commission from trip fare.

Car Type, On-Boarding Fee, On-Cab Ads.

Part-Inventory model to gain exclusivity.

Buying cabs for leasing to the drivers

Ola Money, Ola Corporate, Peak time

charges

In contrast to Ola, Meru began with

complete inventory model & owned all of

its fleet. Drivers were required to pay per

day rentals (INR 1200-INR 1300).

Driver strikes in 2012 has forced Meru to

take the part-Inventory route too. Today

50% of its fleet is owned by drivers. It also

earns around 10% of revenue from On-Cab

advertisements.

Began With Moved to

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Business Model Analysis contd..b. Operational Locations :

c. Target Market :

100 Indian Cities

24 Indian Cities

It believes that the entire mobility space is the target market.

Anyone who needs a online, point to point or outstation transport

according to their budget, Ola has a category for them.

Meru targets the users who want to get a cab instantly and reliably.

Women customers form a good target area for Meru due to well

behaved drivers, clean AC cars and ‘Trust Factor’.

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Business Model Analysis contd..

Brand/Parameters d. Inventory e. User Segment

• Had no Inventory to begin with.

• IT related product functions.

• Recently bought cars form

inventory.

• Anyone who wants to book an

economical cab from smartphone.

• Youngsters, working class and elderly

who need a point to point travel.

• Began with Inventory model

• Entire fleet owned makes up the

inventory

• Devices fit in the vehicle.

• Users looking for instant-reliable cab.

• Users looking for airport cab.

• Users looking to pay a premium price

for better service.

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Strengths and Weaknesses AnalysisBrand/Parameters Strong Points Pain Points Information

First mover as aggregator.

Acquired Taxi For Sure.

High awareness & user base.

Multiple rounds of funding.

Poor behaviour of drivers

Surge Pricing

Drivers refusing Ola Money

App crashes and malfunction

Ola has maintained a

USP of being price

efficient despite the

surge pricing. Ola Auto

is a useful offering.

First radio taxi provider.

Good awareness & presence.

Transparent fare & no surge.

Meru Genie is price efficient.

Huge investment to buy cars

Higher prices than competition

Lesser funding received

Incurs high training cost

Meru has retained a

good customer base

with its ‘Rely on Us’

image.

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Product Analysis & PerformanceParameter/Platform ios Android Windows Phone

App Downloads Undisclosed 10 Million Undisclosed

App Rating 2.5 4.0 3.4

App Reviews Many bugs Fairly Positive App Crashes Reported

Technology Well Established and renowned operator. App is pretty famous in market.

Functionality Allows to chose location, book & track cab, contact driver & pay online/cash

Design Facility to compare fares across ride types is added, Ola select is also new.

New Features Prime Play is available now, Weekend Getaway, New layout to display Prime rides

User Experience (Android Perspective) : GPS works fairly well but there are issues with drivers cancelling

the rides. However, the booking & cab selection works smooth. It almost never properly

predicts the estimated time of arrival of cab to the user. Pricing is not transparent.

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Product Analysis & PerformanceParameter/Platform ios Android Windows Phone

App Downloads Undisclosed 1 Million Undisclosed

App Rating Undisclosed 3.8 4.0

App Reviews Bugs & Crashes Fair with some bugs Fairly Positive

Technology App works smooth on major platforms. Booking is also possible through website.

Functionality Allows instant or advance bookings through app & website. GPS tracking and e-wallets.

Design Has a revamped design and UI. New portfolio for intra-city travel.

New Features Introduced SUV to the fleet; India’s first CAB-wallet; Fare ‘Exactometer’

User Experience (Android Perspective) : The App works fairly well for bookings, fare estimation and

tracking. However, bugs like ‘cab always unavailable’ have been reported. Wallet and Cash

related issues have come up too. ‘Exactometer’ calculations have been questioned by users.

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Predict Future Initiatives

• The focus could well be on ride sharing in the future to ensure efficient cab utilization.

• It has also shown intentions to empower women entrepreneurship by initiatives like Pink Cabs.

• Expansion to furthermore Tier-2 and Tier3 cities, given the smartphone boom in India.

• Take the Ola Money wallet to many more partners and make it a widely used & accepted e-

wallet.

• Looking at the automotive industry trends in India, it is pretty believable that all Ola cabs will

come with Airbags, one touch SOS buttons, one touch women helpline switches and advanced

driver training measures.

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Sources

Forbes

wikipedia

successstory.com

Indianexpress

yosuccess.com

crunchbase.com

yousuccess.com

merucabs.com

unicornomy.com

businessinsider

hindustantimes

crunchbase

business-standard

(Source for Pain Points: App reviews, User Interviews)