Uber-Didi Deal, A Resultant of Heavy Discounting: Meru Cabs CEO

The pullout of Uber from China has raised concerns in India, how is it going to impact their global business and if it would happen here, which seems very likely, what would be the scenario then?

On Monday, Uber sold out its China’s operations to Didi Chuxing in an estimated deal of $35 billion. The market analysts have also said that after China has tightened the screw on the taxi operations in the country, the Uber technologies found it hard to negotiate.

The CEO of Meru Cabs, Siddhartha Pahwa, one of the oldest taxi service providers in India, told BW that it was primarily because of the heavy discount to the travellers and high incentives being given to drivers too.

“Someone has to pay; freebies cannot be continued for long. The investors in the Uber saw their money going down the drain. It has to be recovered and for that these types of measures need to be taken,” Siddhartha added.

This trend might happen in India as well, warned Pahwa. He said that the two leading taxi service providers are trying to create a monopoly or duopoly in the country.

Meanwhile, the priority of Uber will be the US market and after this exit from China, India is going to be their second favourite, said Pahwa, as the bulk of the population lives in these two countries.

“The car owners are going to take the worst hit, if something like this would happen in India. They have to pay EMI’s, which will mount onto them resulting in chaos,” Pahwa said on the aftermath of probable deal in India.

He also urged the government to set the same set of norms for everyone. “It cannot be different with the app-based taxi services and the Kali-Peeli taxi services. There has to be a parity for all like the same surge pricing concept could also be allowed to auto’s as well.”