Uber and Ola are two cab companies which have taken the country by storm. Experts value the Taxi market of India at around 12 Billion USD, and given that Uber and Ola dominate the Indian market, that could explain the corporate rivalry between these two companies. Recently, the rivalry between the two companies escalated to a point where they went to court against each other, as reported by Reuters.
Recently, Uber drivers had complained to the management about an unexpected number of cancelled rides. A team was set up to investigate the issue, and the findings of this team are at the base of the lawsuit filed by Uber against Ola, where Uber accuses Ola of undertaking a campaign to undermine their business and poach their drivers. Uber has sued for approximately $7.5 Million, as compensation for revenues lost and goodwill disrupted.
Apparently, Uber has accused Ola of creating around 94,000 fake Uber accounts and using them to make around 405,000 false bookings and cancellations. The news agency Reuters has claimed to examine certain court documents and has interviewed certain sources close to both Uber and Ola. These sources have revealed that Uber has been able to trace certain fake bookings and calls to Ola employees. Ola has denied all wrongdoing.
This is a story of an all-guns-blazing corporate rivalry between two cab conglomerates competing for one of the largest cab markets in the world, where cheap fares catapult one company forward over the other, but burn millions of investor money as well. Ola has accused Uber of retaliating to a case filed earlier where Ola had accused Uber of violating a court order to start using cleaner fuels in Delhi. Uber refused to comment on this matter since it was still being tried in the courts.
Sources have revealed that Uber has been able to identify locations and IP addresses of thousands of users who had booked and cancelled rides. Court documents reveal that Uber has found that more than 600 accounts used to make fraudulent bookings came from a building housing Ola’s office in Pune. Most of the other fraudulent bookings came from Ola’s office in Bangalore. This adversely affected Uber, where more than 20,000 of its drivers quit their company due to this hegemonic interference between September 2015 and February 2016.
Uber has submitted evidence to the courts in the form of images of several LinkedIn profiles, Google Maps locations and hundreds of phone numbers which it feels to be of people associated with Ola, as revealed by Reuters, which found most of these numbers as not-operational. One user identified as Kisan Kumar has been found to make around 74 cancellations, but he has been unavailable for comment. Another number belonged to an individual named Shiv D, whose number has been allegedly used to create 30 fake accounts. The individual concerned has stated that he used to help Ola drivers get cars, but he had quit the company.
Related: Uber and Ola: Do you hear the government?
The untold story behind this legal war is a war of prices between Uber and Ola, and the incentives used by Uber and Ola to lure drivers. Estimates show that Uber’s growth has outpaced Ola in the last two years, but Ola still leads the market shares.
The other accusation made by Uber against Ola speaks to a serious matter of corporate fraud and manipulation. Apparently, one of Uber’s biggest losses came on the night of New Year’s Eve, when Uber drivers started getting calls asking them to switch of the app used by drivers, due to technical glitches. When the drivers began checking back after some hours to see if the issues had been resolved so that they could get back to their livelihood, it was revealed that the Uber management had made no such calls. Uber has said that these calls have been traced back to two numbers registered in Ola’s name. Reuters has verified that one of the numbers listed in the court documents is an Ola call center. A source close to Ola said Ola denies making any such calls, and accuses Uber of fabricating stories, since the company’s call centre numbers are public information.
The issue of corporate rivalry dates back to the dawn of international conglomerates. From Pepsi v/s Coca Cola, Apple v/s Samsung to Marvel v/s DC and even Batman v/s Superman, the concept of no-holds-barred, contemptuous and all-out conflict has shaped the modern corporate scenario, with each company vying to be a household name and gain complete supremacy over the market. The question of ethics sometimes remains just a question in the quest for ultimate market dominance. Who is going to survive ultimately?
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