The Battle of The Apps: UBER vs OLA
The news of SoftBank becoming Uber’s largest shareholder earlier this year left everyone scratching their chins, trying to predict what this means for India. For those out of the loop, according to CrunchBase, SoftBank was one of the three bigwigs that put in $ 1.1 billion into Ola in 2017. The same Ola that Uber sued for damages to the tune of $ 7.5 million in 2016. If your brow is getting furrowed at around this point, you’re not the only one.
Drawing the Battle lines
Is there any merit to the cases? Or is this an actively constructed perception both Uber and Ola are trying to create? When the scale of operations is this big, public perception plays a large role in keeping shareholders put as well as introducing the company to new customers that keep them growing. Regardless of how you cut it, design plays a huge role in that first introduction. Logos, websites, and app interface are often parts of a company a user experiences before they may even know what the company is about. As someone involved and working closely with design, it is easy to notice it in the digitised world. I’m certain other people do too but all they lack is the vocabulary to verbalise it (which is the kind of situation 1thing wants to work towards improving). The design is an inextricable part of modern living. The fonts have us surrounded.
Innovating with Basics
The current displays on the newer iterations of the app seem to be very similar. With both Uber and Ola’s home screen showing tiny cars winding around your location and a window asking you where you want to go, the apps might be mistaken for one another were it not for their choice of colors, fonts and design style.
“I only use Ola when there’s no Uber nearby,” says Vishal, an investment banker based in Mumbai. “I think it’s the international brand image makes them seems more trustworthy, I guess.” Sam, a student based out of Surat feels that “Hands on experience on both the apps are almost the same. Although the Uber app looks classier than Ola’s .” Considering their head start in India, Ola should be dominating the game. With its presence in 106 cities, Ola’s victory is by sheer numbers. New features like the OTP styled Ola Pin that has to be conveyed to the driver before starting the ride haven’t gone down well with users. “What’s the point of a pin? I have the driver’s name, number, and license on the app. That’s three identifiers already.” says K.J, a music professional based out of Mumbai. Minor design issues like these combined with Uber’s customer service and their global appeal have put them at par with Ola with ease.
However, on the flipside of the coin, the feature has found fans in parts of the country where safety is a cause for concern. “I think it provides an added layer of security which just really puts my mind to ease, especially during late night travels,” says Tanvi, a PR professional based out of New Delhi. Ola has another factor supporting it. Users that want to follow in the footsteps of China’s economic policy of “foreign capital, local companies” root for apps like Ola, Flipkart, and MakeMyTrip, on the basis that they’re made in India. “The foreign companies might have better facilities, but it’s in our national interest to lend our support to Indian companies. It’s business, everyone makes mistakes, but we must give them chance to learn.” Retired army officer Joginder Bhalla views this as his basis for being an Ola loyalist.
Fighting Dirty
Cab aggregators have been in India since 2011 with the launch of Ola and don’t seem likely to be disappearing any time soon. Having expanded as a market with the entry of Uber in 2013, the race for domination over India treads murky waters with both companies taking each other to court. OLA first took Uber to court. In early 2016, Ola took Uber to task accusing them of flouting the Supreme Court’s regulation to promote clean fuel cars. Uber soon thereafter sued Ola to the tune of 7.5 million dollars, alleging that they had caused them damages by fake bookings and cancellations that could be traced back to Ola’s Pune and Bangalore offices. Talk about a quick escalation.
Repercussions of Retention
A quick google search highlights that users view cab cancellation by the driver as their single biggest complaint. The annoyance is so high that many people don’t mind paying extra for a cab aggregator that has a higher chance of delivering a hundred percent on the booking. Once again, Uber scores the brownie points here, with people posting screengrabs of their ride history on Ola which is littered with cancellations on the driver’s end, but charges to the user.
Advancing with Advance Bookings
As conveyance allowances slowly become standard practices for many of major corporate conglomerates, the idea of pre-booking at rush hours seems like a goldmine, given the notorious traffic jams of India’s metropolitan cities. Ola had it implemented much earlier than Uber did, but the heavy cancellation led to it backfiring heavily. Secondly as usage of the cabs is now commonplace for many sectors of working professionals and the novelty of the service has worn off, the actual quality of the cars and their drivers is coming under heavy scrutiny.
In a constantly changing startup atmosphere, growing pains are bound to be a recurring phenomenon. Knowledge of this fact makes fast, accessible and smooth customer service for grievance redressal a top priority. Refunds, angry calls, and questions are going to be a regular feature. In certain cases, app-based cab aggregators are viewed with a slight hint of suspicion by new users. Not relying on time or resolving the problem in its entirety equals to losing a customer. Emails, calls or multiple choice selections for problems the company preempts as existing issues (Cancellation, Delayed drivers, Misbehaviour etc) show that they put some thought into the user end of the experience as well.
The Bottom Line
Cab aggregator apps put together a minimum of two strangers into a metal box and guarantee one a destination and the other payment for their effort. Viewed in this context, it’s not surprising that it paints a weird picture, but that’s essentially what it is. We’re sure designing the interface — that both parties use to strike the conversation — a little better will go a long way in making it less weird. If you have any suggestions, leave them down below in the comments section, we look forward to it!
Onething is a UI/UX Design agency based in Gurugram, India, building a flourishing community of designers from across the world. Check out some of our work on Dribbble and Instagram.
