Uber, say Ola to your newest competitor in Australia
A month after the launch of Taxify, Australia gets yet another ride-hailing service in Ola.
Just two months ago, Uber was the only ride-hailing game in town. It now has not one direct competitor, but two.
Ola, a ride-sharing company out of India, is officially launching in Australia, it announced on Tuesday. Ola cars will hit the streets in "early 2018," with no specific launch date mentioned. The news comes a month after European ride-hailer Taxify hit Sydney's streets.
Though you may not have heard of it, Ola is no pushover. In India, it serves roughly 125 million customers and has a crew of a million drivers, according to the company.
It's bad news for Uber, who has been the go-to ride-sharing app in Australia since its legalisation in 2015. The competition is good news for those looking to hail a ride though: Uber in 2015 was around 40 percent cheaper than taxi services, and Taxify, which last Thursday moved to Melbourne, offered half-price trips for its first month in the country. It remains to be seen what Ola will do to tempt customers to its services, but something similar seems likely.