1.

Home country (the country of origin)- San Francisco, USA

2. Target country(s) or city(s) – India’s Metropolitan cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, New
Delhi, Chennai etc.)
3. The company industry – Transportation
4. The product/service category- Mobile application for cab services
5. Product(s) – customer service for cab services.

INTRODUCTION
UBER is a multinational ride hailing company with its headquarters located at San Francisco
USA operating in 785 metropolitan cities across 63 nations. It provides various services
including peer-to-peer ride sharing, ride service hailing, and a micro-mobility system for
electric bikes and scooters with option to choose between luxury vehicles to standard cars
and motorcycles using smart phone and internet.
UBER HISTORY

In March 2009 UBER was founded with initially being known as UBERCab.
Uber goes live for the first time in San Francisco, launches at SF AppShow, gives attendees first
limo rides from app in May 2010. After one year UBER started national expansion by going live
in New York City and then in Chicago. Later in same year on 05 Dec 2011 it started international
expansion by expanding into Paris, France and later to Toronto, Canada and Mexico etc.
In August 2013 it Uber was launched in Bangalore, India. On August 2014 Uber announces
UberPool, which lets riders share rides based on proximity, making rides cheaper for customers.
Ever since Uber has been expanding to various metropolitan cities of the globe and to various
other sectors including Food delivery, car rentals etc.
Uber has also faced various competitions like  Lyft (United States), Didi Kuaidi (China), Ola
Cabs (India), and GrabTaxi (South-East Asia) .
On 10th May 2019 Uber raised $8.1 billion at $45 per share in its IPO, valuing the company at
$82 billion.

UBER’s expansion in INDIA:

UBER entered India in August 2013 and started from a small office in Bangalore and was almost
adding a new city to its system every month. Uber’s 11-city network in India is the company’s
largest outside of the United States. Analysts estimate that thousands of drivers were using its
system to connect with more than 15,000 customers in India a day.
Uber would generally use three people to launch in a new city: one local CEO or general
manager, one community manager for marketing and customer support and one operations
manager for recruiting training and managing drivers. With a few extra support staff, Uber was
running India with only 40 employees in recent months, managers said.

The small teams would usually work out of temporary offices. Their base in Delhi for example
was three rooms in a small hotel in a New Delhi suburb.
To generate buzz, Uber held posh launch parties on the roofs of the Oberoi in New Delhi and
Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai. In the first months of service Uber’s new customers gushed as
they were chauffeured around in Mercedes, BMW and Audi cars.

Its streamlined management teams would recruit drivers and train them on their system that
uses smartphones. Drivers said all they needed was the right paperwork and a few hours of
training to get on the Uber system.

As word spread that drivers could join Uber easily, make good money and get paid weekly
which was very rare in India, the number of drivers switching to Uber exploded. Some drivers
said they had even taken loans to buy new cars to become part of the system.
Uber used its popularity to roll out a medium-priced service and then an even cheaper car
service which costed less than a ride in a three-wheeled auto rickshaw’s. With local lenders, it
even started offering loans to drivers that wanted to get new cars.

This journey led UBER to expand inside India just from one single city to 11 major cities and is
still expanding.

Uber’s Market Entry Barriers to Indian market

Political and legal barrier’s:

The Reserve Bank of India was the first to notice its rule bending. In August the central bank
told Uber and others to stop breaking its rules that require a two-step process to confirm
payments. Uber had to switch to a new payment system this month to abide by the rules.

After the rape accusation, transportation officials and police have said Uber, need to stop
operating until they meet government guidelines for radio taxis, which means more screening
of drivers as well a very specific requirements about the cars used, including the need for GPS
tracking systems that cannot be turned off. Of course battling rules that were created to
protect overpriced taxi cartels is kind of Uber’s business model so it is little surprise that it was
allegedly breaking rules in India as well. In the end it has often defended itself saying that
technically it is not a taxi company but just a software platform that introduces drivers to
customers.

Karnataka, in southern India, was the first state to curb surge pricing, the practice of
automatically increasing fare rates during a time of high demand. As one news report notes,
this often means that “customers have to deal with fares that are several times the actual rate
advertised by these companies. Uber, in the past, has fought against any state-level regulation
of surge pricing, insisting that they provide incentives for drivers to move into high-demand
areas and ensure customers always have access to cars.” Moreover, they argued that since they
don’t hire drivers or own the cabs, the same price caps applied to traditional taxi companies
shouldn’t be applied to them.
Customer Barriers:
Since most of the Indian population is classified as middle class and are working in offices hence
the traditional mode of commuting in major cities was through public transport as it was cheap
and convenient. There existed a myth amongst local public that cab services are very expensive
and they were afraid of using it as it would affect their financial budgeting practices
significantly. There also pre existed traditional cab/taxi operators in each city and uber
competitors like OLA which was very famous amongst the cab users in India. Hence this was the
biggest barrier for entry into Indian market for Uber as it had to face so many challenges to
establish itself.
Environmental barrier
In an effort to improve the quality of air in the city of Delhi, on December 16, 2015,
the Supreme Court of India ordered that all taxis (including aggregators like Uber and Ola)
operating in the National Capital Region of Delhi move from diesel to CNG fuel in the hope that
“it will contribute substantially to the reduction of the pollution.” The Court gave taxi operators
until March 1, 2016, to comply. At the request of cab operators and their respective
associations, the Court extended the deadline twice, but made it clear that it will grant no
further requests for extensions.

Economic Barrier
To get into the market and reach out to most of the population uber used the referral bonus
technique in which it would reward the customers who engage other people to connect to uber
and take ride with it. The rewards were in form of discounts, free rides, luxury cars at cheap
rates etc. which costed uber a lot of money in the beginning to engage people to use their
services.
Business Infrastructure barriers
Since uber is a mobile application based company it operated remotely and dis not need to buy
or rent any specific office , rent buy or lease taxis, it only helped customers connect to cab
drivers and not much was invested in offices or other infrastructure stuff but still a significant
amount was spent on renting small rooms in hotels for registration of drivers and employees
working for uber. Uber normally had a small team in each city with 3-4 persons managing the
entire city and handful of employees engaged in registration of drivers.
Market risks
Competition:
While Uber is operating good in Indian market still is facing a tough competition from its rivals
like OLA cabs and local taxi operators , it acts as a risk for it as customers have a lot of options
and one who gives a good deal attracts the customers.

Cash Flow:
To be in market Uber has to give competitive fare price to its users which results to reduction of
profit. And hence sometimes Uber has to pool in money to stay in the league.
Unreliable Drivers:
Since UBER charges 20% commission on money earned in a ride from its drivers it acts as a
financial burden on them, and after a certain period the driver might quit using uber prior any
notice and might get attached to some better agency providing a better cut to them.

Market entry Strategy

 Uber believed in "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well
the product or service fits him and sells itself."
Which means, if you get your product right, it will sell itself. Just like Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb,
Instagram, and other users never needed to use mass media and traditional marketing channels
for promotion.
The secret of its fleet-footed business model was a killer phone application that made it easy to
book, track and pay for rides and tiny management teams which would target new cities.

All of them essentially followed a practice, now popularly called” Growth Hacking” which means
acquiring more and more engaged users without using traditional marketing techniques.
In the start, Uber’s marketing strategy has not been to use the traditional mass marketing
methods like TV, Print & OOH, but to use out-of-the-box promotional activities to educate and
engage with the customers.
Uber team focused on putting a good product in front of their customers, for them to try it
once and then come back again
Uber had a very thought out flow to their marketing approach which includes the following 5
major steps.

Launch -> Build Up -> Amplification -> Sustenance -> Growth

This strategy was followed by dedicated marketing activities which were aimed at achieving the
above set goals.

PHASE 1: LAUNCH

INFLUENCER MARKETING & FREERIDES 

#Riderzero is one campaign that Uber uses at the time of the launch of their services in any new
city or country. They roped in key influencers from every city to try out Uber’s service for the
first time “secretly”.

In India, they had partnered with cricketers and actors likes Zaheer Khan, Ranvijay, Neha
Dhupia etc.

The same strategy was followed when they launched their services in Bangladesh, Pakistan.

The idea was to create a social buzz and reach out to millions of followers.

FREE RIDES: Nothing works better than offering a discount on the service they need, and that is
exactly what Uber did. Uber offered discounts to its customers on the first few rides. The aim of
this exercise was simple, to let the customers have a taste of their service.
PHASE 2: BUILD UP

REFERRAL MARKETING

Ever wondered “How does a brand go viral?”. Its surely not by promoting it through traditional
marketing channels.

Uber thought of the same thing and instead of spending crores of marketing money on pushing
traditional campaigns, Uber decided to spend the money on giving the consumers a first-hand
experience of the service to try out their product.

It went heavy on referrals, the whole idea was to create a domino effect, where a customer
asks his family members or friends to use the app and they follow the same pattern.

Every referral you made, Uber gave credits on each referred ride to both referrer and the
referee.

PHASE 3: AMPLIFICATION

HEAVY DISCOUNTS, FESTIVAL MARKETING & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

After making customers know what Uber is all about, it was time to blast all engines and
amplify their launch by launching new services/cars, increasing their partner network and
expanding to other new cities.

Uber had something for everybody, from hatchbacks to a sedan to autorickshaw and finally to a
motorbike, Uber launched services for every walk of life at different price points that suited
their pockets.
They decided to become ‘available’ for consumers when most needed which meant,
Uber delivered kites on Makar Sakranti, colors on Holi and cupcakes on Rakhi.
Uber even offered discounted rides to your IPL matches and other key events.
Uber also offered to give mums a Mother’s day makeover or lovers a ride in an Uber Chopper
on Valentines Day.

PHASE 4: SUSTENANCE

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
After all, the right hooks and levers were pulled and things were moving north, you need to
keep doing a little something to stay there.

It was time to be there in front of the customers’ eyes all the time, and the best way to do was
through partnerships. The partnership needed to complement both the partners and this is
what Uber was looking for.

TIE UP WITH ZOMATO

The option of booking an Uber from the Zomato app to reach one’s favorite restaurant.
Contextual and brilliant integration.

PHASE 5: GROWTH

After all the efforts gone in establishing and sustaining the brand, the time was to grow the
brand. And for growth, one needs to make sure to do things that keep the brand on top of the
customers’ mind.

MARKETING CAMPAIGNS:

What’s the value of a campaign if it does not connect with the audience! This is one thing
Uber’s marketing team must have discussed before launching their own campaigns.

Be it the SEE YOU SOON campaign or APNI HI GADI (your own car) campaign, Uber tried to
position itself as an inclusive and progressive brand and succeeded in it as well.

UBER IS BEING LOCAL:

The last leg of the marketing strategy of Uber was to go local. Uber tried to capture the pulse of
every city they are launching their service in and then curating the content which suited the
consumers of that city or country.

This strategy made UBER an all time hit in Indian Market.