UpGrad Product Management

Competitor Analysis

Student Name: Stallon A Miranda

Introduction to the
Company
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INDEX
Competitor Identification

Background Analysis

Business Model Analysis

Strategy

Strengths & Weaknesses

Product Analysis

Future
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Initiatives
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DIRECT COMPETITORS INDIRECT COMPETITORS
Ola Cabs, Uber and Easy Cabs are some of Bla Bla Cars, Zoom Car and ZipGo are the
the notable Direct Competitors. notable Indirect Competitors.

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 Competitive Analysis

Meru Cabs Vs Ola Cabs

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Background Comparison
Parameters Meru cabs
Goals and Mission Meru wants to be an organization that
will touch the one billion population in
India and ensure that we provide a safe,
reliable and transparent transport
solution to the people for a daily purpose.
Ola Cabs
To bring convenience, price
transparency and standardization
to consumers booking car rentals and
cab services. They offer instant
confirmation for car rental bookings.

Founder Neeraj Gupta and Nilesh Sangoi Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati

Current Employees 500-1000 8000

Revenue USD 72 Million USD 120 Million

Funding Appx 75 Million USD (as of June 2016) Appx 3.3 Billion USD (as of June 2016)

Customer 12 million 30 million

Operating Cities
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24 Cities 120 Cities
 Strategy
Meru Cabs Ola Cabs
• One of the first companies to launch metered • Ola cabs have been using segmentation
"Radio cabs" in India under its brand "Meru”. parameters such as geographically dividing the
• First launched in Mumbai in April 2007 & changed market it serves into urban & metro in order to
the way metered taxis operate in India. devise promotional and business strategy based
• They are expanding to Tier2/3 cities slow and on demand in these markets.
steadily. • In order to strengthen its business, the company
• Pioneered and continue to thrive in the advanced has been acquiring different companies such as
booking space (advance booking up-to 7 days) TaxiForSure.com for $ 200 mn in 2015, to
• Reachable even foe a tech illiterate who can book strengthen its shuttle service it acquired Geotag,
the cabs through a call or a mail or so. an intelligent transportation firm in the year 2015.
• Earning revenue through Cab advertisements. • Innovatively thought concept ideas and ads of the
company such as Chalo Niklo, Ola Share pass, Ola
outstation, shuttle and Ola peddle has helped the
company in being ahead of its peers.

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 Funding

Initial finding by ‘India Value Fund’ in March 2015 of the amount of $50 million.

First series funding by Bennett Colemen and Co. Ltd in in June 2016 of the amount of $25 million.

Initial funding by Seed Funding in April 2011 of the amount $0.33 million.

Ola has raised a total of $3.3 billion funding over 16 rounds. Their latest fund was raised in September

17th 2018 from Venture Series.

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Ola Business Model
The business model works on a very simple concept; OLA acts as a facilitator in providing cab-booking
services. Customers can book their cabs through the app.

Basic model of ‘X%’ commission for the total fare of the trip ranges from 155 to 20% depending on the
city and type of vehicle

Every driver gets an incentive on every 12 to 14 rides of Rs.500-750 based on city and type of vehicle.
Ola also charges a Waiting fee to the customer.

Meru Business model

Initially they launched owning the cab fleet but then as it could require huge initial
investment, they boarded drivers with their own cars.

Cab drivers were to pay a fixed amount to Meru everyday initially, but now drivers share 20%
of their revenue with Meru and this shift happened as driver had to pay even when they are
on leave and during downtime.
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Drivers can work whenever and how much ever they want.
 Revenue Model

Trip based commissions.

Security Deposits of leased out cars from existing owned fleet.
Cabvertisements: On-can ads – made almost Rs 10crore in 10 month.

Trip Based Commissions

Ola Money Wallet
Corporate Tie Ups / Event Tie Ups
Vehicle On-Boarding Fee
In-Cab Advertisements
Car Type and Peak time charges
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They are having a pure B2C business. Now they are catering their service directly to corporate segment
Through strategic tie-ups.

The target audience of OLA is every Tier 1 & 2 city resident, employee and visitor over 16,female and
male who is interested in professional, valued and safe transport services and wants to enjoy their ride
with Ola Cabs.

Every person in Tier 1 & 2 cities is a potential customer to Ola.

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 Strengths
• First radio taxi provider.
• Cost effective and no surge pricing.
• Only aggregator to making a profit.
• Leading in advanced booking space.
• Very advanced back-end technology
• Driver stickiness is very high
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Weaknesses
• Present only in 24 cities.
• Not a very huge cab fleet compared to
Ola.
• Very low branding compared to Ola.
• Received low funding.
• High training costs
 Strengths
• Widespread marketing of the brand.
High customer awareness.
• Present in 100+ cities.
• New products and features for every
segment of the customer base.
• Huge cab fleet ensures high cab
availability
Weaknesses
• High surge prices.
• Despite of all funding the company is
not making profits.
• Drivers are usually signed up with Uber
also, decreasing driver stickiness.
• Ola drivers have bad feedback and raise
concerns with consumers.
 Pain Points of the Users

Poor Customer Service

Often Bugs reported in the App.

Driver refusal to service

One of the notable pain point is that for the users of advanced booking, Meru notifies the customer very
late.
 Pain Points of the Users

During a driver’s last trip of a day, in many instances, it happens that the drop location of the customer
is on the other side of the city, while the driver’s own home, to which he has to return to after dropping
the customer, is completely on the other side of the city.

Drivers sometimes are lost finding their way towards the nearest fuel station (Petrol/Diesel/CNG)

While interacting with a customer, drivers should require to conform to a professional etiquette. Many
users report this as a concern.

All through the tenure of a driver’s engagement with Ola, a few events, which may require financial
commitment from the driver, associated with almost every driver’s cab are bound to repeatedly
happen.
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 Product Analysis
Specific Meru Cabs Ola Cabs
App Downloads 15-20 million 50+ million
App ratings 4 stars 4.2 starts
App Reviews 45% reviews with 5 stars 41% reviews with 5 stars

App Downloadable Size 25 MB 40 MB

Basic Features One touch booking, Fare See availability, book and
Exact meter, Ride a Meru track cabs and get notified,
airport taxi and pay thru recharge wallet, SOS
Meru app.
App User Experience Moderate Moderate
 Future Initiatives

Plan to expand Genie cab operations in more cities in coming months. Expecting 28% of
overall revenue from this segment.

Plan to expand Meru cabs in 10 more cities.

Start Meru Eve operations in other cities.

 Future Initiatives Continued

Ola will be able to closely monitor the driver behavior and conversation with the customer,
which may result in enrichment of customer experience.

They are thinking of involving and empowering women as driver entrepreneurs in the next
three years.

Expanding their business to other Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.