India mobility opportunity massive, underpenetrated; have barely scratched surface: Uber

New Delhi: India is among the largest markets by volume and growing at a rapid pace, President of Uber India and South Asia Prabhjeet Singh has said, terming it an "incredibly important market" that presents a multi-decadal opportunity for the ride-hailing platform.

Singh told PTI that mobility opportunity in India is "massive" and "underpenetrated". The company believes it has "barely scratched the surface" despite the strong line-up of products and services and the robust growth.

"There is so much more to be done even though we are growing leaps and bounds," the top honcho of Uber India said.

The mobility giant will continue to bring cutting-edge innovation to the market and also take India-first innovations to the rest of the world, he emphasised.

"It is an incredibly important market, a multi-decadal opportunity," Singh said.

India is one of the least-penetrated markets when it comes to ride-hailing, with less than a per cent of the trips in the city taking place on ride-hailing platforms.

"...that number is three to five per cent in multiple mature cities, globally. That gives you a sense of the headroom for growth in a market like India as the ecosystem evolves," he said.

The India business is riding on multiple growth engines, including Uber 'Auto' and 'Moto', which are "opening up completely new consumer categories", he said.

Many innovations out of India are now being exported globally, he added.

"Despite the massive scale we have, India is also one of the fastest growing markets for us. And that makes it incredibly exciting," he said.

Uber is hyper-focused on bringing new services to the market to fuel continued growth.

The ride-hailing app on Thursday announced a host of new features such as SOS integration, helmet selfie and women rider preference for female drivers -- all aimed at making experience for million-plus drivers on its platform "safer, easier and fairer".

Further, in support of the government's Code on Social Security (CoSS), which seeks to provide a safety net for gig workers, Uber announced the promotion of registrations on the e-Shram portal, which is a unified database for gig workers and unorganised workers.

To encourage participation and accelerate such registrations, Uber is offering cash incentives to the first 10,000 drivers who register on the portal.

Key enhancements for drivers include SOS integration, helmet selfie, women rider preference for female drivers, and audio recording, as also upfront tipping, instant payments, and mentorship programme.

Earlier this year, Uber global CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had described India as one of the toughest markets to grow in because people in the country wanted a lot of services but didn't want to spend much money.

Singh said that he took the observation nothing short of a compliment.

"Dara mentioned that, I read that as a compliment to the fact that Indian consumers demand more, which is fabulous, which pushes us to innovate. It is also a compliment to the fact that this is such an important market where we are investing to grow. And a lot of the innovations which are actually happening in India are now being exported globally," he said.

India is a big engineering base for Uber globally, Singh said pointing out that the talent in India is exciting and allows the company to create world-class solutions right here.

"We have two thriving centres, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where the teams are building cutting-edge solutions, not just for India, but for the world from India. We continue to scale our centres. And the talent density in India is so exciting that it allows us to really create world class solutions from India," he said.

On increasing competition in the Indian market, Singh said Uber believes in being "competition aware, but not competition obsessed". Uber, he noted, has kept a sharp focus on playing to its own strengths.

Further, he said intense competition in any market or category is a sign that the segment is growing incredibly fast, attracting new innovation.

"And that keeps incumbents who are market leaders like us on our toes. It keeps us innovating faster," Singh said.

On the labour ministry's proposed social security framework for gig workers, Singh said Uber has always been at the forefront of advocating for a legislation like code of social security.

"We are already encouraging drivers to sign up through the e-Shram portal. And we are on standby to contribute to the code of social security fund, which can then fund the efforts required to support the gig workers. And we think this can become a gold-standard model for multiple countries to follow," he said.

Uber is keen to see an urgent and agile implementation, he said, adding the company is "on standby" to embrace it from day one.