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India is an incredibly important and a core market for UBER, it's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Thursday.
In his first ever visit to India, Khosrowshahi said that UBER continues to be in investment mode in Indian market.
"We are investing in this (India) market because we believe in it. We believe in long term viability of Indian market", Khosrowshahi said at an editor's round table in the capital.Khosrowshahi, an Iranian American, became the CEO of UBER in August 2017, succeeding founder Travis Kalanick.
Khosrowshahi, an Iranian American, became the CEO of UBER in August 2017, succeeding founder Travis Kalanick.
The cab aggregator, headquartered in San Fransisco, has operations in 633 cities worldwide and in 29 cities in India.
INDIA INVESTMENTS
Asked about the investments Uber was making in India, Khosrowshahi said that the company does not specifically disclose how much it was investing here, “but it’s a lot”.
Uber sees India as a laboratory for how the company shapes its products for the rest of the world.
Khosrowshahi said that India currently accounts for 10 per cent of Uber trips at the global level, which he said is expected to go “higher and higher” as the company invests more here.
He also said that Uber sees its driver partners universe, which is at about 3 lakhs now, growing 5X-10X in next three years. “We are on a good road there (scaling up of driver partners). At the same time, he also said that Uber operations are not profitable.
CITIES COVERAGE
In India, in terms of cities, Uber has presence in 29 cities. Asked to spell out business plans for expansion of cities coverage, Uber CEO said that from a population standpoint, the coverage as on date is really good.
“We are not scaling up immediately. If your question is will we be in more cities in India in next three years from now, the answer is yes. Our coverage in terms of cities in India is not too broad now but we are at the right pace”, he said
One of the real mistakes companies make early on is they try to expand before they perfect the product, he said.
SOUTH EAST ASIA
Uber CEO said that Uber plans to aggressively invest in South East Asia in terms of marketing, subsidies etc., although it may lose money in that market.
UBER EATS
Khosrowshahi said that ‘UBER EATS’ is one of the fastest growing services in the world. In India, ‘UBER EATS’ is in 9 cities and growing.
MEETING LEADERS
During his two-day visit, Khosrowshahi will meet the Prime Miniser Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Arun jaitley and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, sources said.
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