Heena Sharma Blog

Cab aggregator Ola is laying off 1,400 staff from rides, financial services and food business as revenues declined by 95 per cent in the last two months due to coronavirus pandemic , a note by CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said. In an email to employees, Aggarwal made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is "very unclear and uncertain" and the impact of this crisis is "definitely going to be long-drawn for us". "The fallout of the virus has been very tough for our industry in particular. Our revenue has come down 95 per cent over the past 2 months. Most importantly, this crisis has affected the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies," he said. Read More

Ride-hailing major Ola, which is one of the earliest players to launch bike taxi service , is seeing huge demand in smaller cities and towns across several states. Ola Bike is quietly tapping India’s hinterland where users see bike taxis as the most convenient and cheapest mode of commute in the absence of proper taxi service. For example, Ola Bike is operating in towns such as Gaya, Bikaner, Mughalsarai, Tirupati, Ambala, Pathankot, Ajmer, etc. In tier II cities and beyond, bike taxi services are popular because of the lack of public transport infrastructure. Arun Srinivas, chief sales and marketing officer of Ola, says, “Ola Bike has seen large-scale adoption among people living in India’s hinterlands which have not had access to convenient, affordable and reliable on-demand transportation so far, unlike the larger cities.” Ola Bike, which was first launched in 2016, is now accessed by over 150 million users. The firm now claims Ola Bike has expanded to over 200 cities and...