India’s very own cab hailing company Ola will start seeing profits in 2 years, its Co-Founder Bhavish Aggarwal claimed during an event on India Internet Day, 2017. His plan is “ to go into niche areas and build relevant products that will significantly improve the bottom line.“
In its last available fiscal report from 2014-15, in order to save the ship from sinking and to fend off stiff competition from its prime competitor Uber, Ola lost around Rs. 3 for every Rs. 1 in revenue. Its net loss is at a whopping Rs. 754.8 crores, in comparison to its loss last year which was at Rs. 34.2 crores.
Aggarwal said Ola Share and Ola Prime were the company’s fast-growing categories. But ironically, this carpooling services offered by Ola (Ola Share) and Uber(Uber Pool) faced problems, with the Karnataka Government Transport department ordering the two companies to cease all carpooling schemes in January. It was because no proper steps had been taken to regulate this mechanism of car pooling.
When asked about drivers’ grievances, Aggarwal said the company is in the process of launching a whole new set of products for drivers. These app-based taxi service companies saw several hiccups in February, with over hundreds of drivers across various cities entering into protests against the falling incomes and incentives.
To add fuel to the fire, a few from the company’s top brass recently decided to quit their positions and wanted to be relieved of their duties to the company. Notable names involved Chief Marketing Officer Raghuvesh Sarup and Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal. Sundeep Sahni, a highly talented hire who headed the company’s new initiatives, and Abhimanyu Rawal, head of the luxury cab service Ola Lux, had also resigned in December.
In spite of all this, Mr. Aggarwal is firm and confident things will turn around in due time, and his company will persevere through these dark times to once again see the light of day.
Will they? Or won’t they? Only time can tell.
