Ride-hailing service Uber to put $1 billion in India

Uber is bullish on the Indian market: The company said it plans to pour billion into its India operations over the next nine months.

One investor said Uber and Didi Kuaidi are likely to engage in money-burning competition in the short term, spending US$5 million-US$10 million every day on marketing.

Industry estimates now have Uber at some 200,000 daily rides in India.

Uber said India and China are its priority markets. “All three have the ability to significantly improve people’s lives, as well as build a great business”.

We’ve posed a range of questions to Uber to lean more about its plans for India, we’ll be sharing the responses once we have them.

The taxi-booking space in India is booming and Uber has been growing aggressively since its launch in 2013. Ola is backed by the Japanese and American companies SoftBank and Tiger Global.

Still, questions remain over how willing some cities may be to welcome Uber, and whether the company will need to jump through regulatory hurdles to realize its vision. It made that announcement just one day after local rival Flipkart revealed a billion funding raise. Uber supports a change in the law to allow special permission for green WAV (Wheelchair Accesible Vehicles) to accept WAV rides in Manhattan, to better serve the community in need there. In June, New Delhi authorities rejected the application and started impounding Uber cars. Since then, the government has modified regulations to say that app-based firms can be governed under radio taxi rules.

Uber applied for new licenses in New Delhi and other cities but continued its operations while approvals were pending. It is now present in more than 18 cities and has introduced various features especially catering to the Indian market.

Uber stated India and China are its precedence markets.

Payments have been an issue for Uber in India – it was in trouble late last year for allegedly contravening India’s banking rules, but a link up with Paytm allayed the regulators’ concerns.