When we think about Uber, what immediately comes to our mind is cabs. We assume Uber to be an amazing transportation company. While there is no question that Uber revolutionized transportation, Uber is, in essence, a technology-based disruptor. What Uber did is to make use of the latest technology in breaking what was considered normal at that point in time.

Uber did not change the way cabs were driven – it was the same drivers and the same gasoline engines, and electric motors in some cases! However, what Uber did was to change the way the driver connected with a passenger who actually needed transportation.

Striking at the root of a process has its own benefits. It helps you diversify your portfolio of services and that too, in a very effective and efficient way. This is precisely what Uber did. They realized that what they have hacked is not transportation but technology. This is what enabled them to create a simple taxi app that started with operations in New York. In 2010, a year after it was introduced in New York, it also started serving San Francisco.

Uber came with better quality cars and aptly named it UberX and this service started in 2012. With the growing demand for carpooling and ridesharing, Uber started off with UberPOOL in 2014. Uber made sure it took into consideration the convenience and the competition. In 2014, Uber created Uber Moto which enables users to request motorcycle taxis. To take on the competition by players like Ola in India, they came up with the concept of Uber auto that delivers auto rickshaws to customers at their location.

Today’s taxi market is crowded with ride-sharing apps like Uber, Ola, and Lyft. They are giving serious competition for upcoming ventures. These on-demand apps have initiated the radical shift in the taxi industry enabling the smooth transition from conventional taxi hailing to booking a cab through an app. Customers are opting for hailing taxis through the app because of its reliability to get a taxi and ensuring a much better cab booking experience. Thus, the taxi market is ripe for the taking, and this is the right time for entrepreneurs to make use of the opportunity.

Statistics on the Taxi Industry

The traditional taxi industry is still stuck with inefficient phone call bookings, competitors and they stand to lose at least $20 million on an everyday basis just because customers couldn’t find a cab. Another statistics survey tells us that almost 80% of the commuter prefer Ola and Uber over regular taxis and that Uber has completed nearly 2 billion rides since its inception. The profits soared over $20 Billion in the process. What made Uber and Ola successful ventures is the sound business strategy they employed. So if you are going to establish your venture then understanding the market is imperative.

Uber, as we know, operates only in 650 cities and remains the best among all taxi apps. But have you ever imagined about other cities and their demand for taxi applications? If you did, you would have certainly come across a few regional apps like Ola, Didi Chuxing, Japan Taxi, etc. These apps are focused on fulfilling the demands of locals; and in that way, they have succeeded and generated revenue tremendously. If you search for the reason behind the success of these apps, it inevitably ends up in the kind of service it provides its customers. So, it all depends on how well you bestow your service (whether you focus regionally or globally).