Question

URGENT, please answer.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Uber and what are the advantages and disadvantages of Taxify in pursuing their international strategies?
2. What are the international corporate-level strategies of Taxify and Uber? Explain how they apply the strategies with their rationale.

Answer 1

Uber, a cab company who operates in most parts of the world has it's head office in San Francisco, US. For a long time Uber had monopolized the market by wisely segmenting it demographically and geographically. However there are certain advantages and disadvantages that Uber has. Lets understand them point by point :

Advantages :

1) Introduction of the App : The Uber app helps the customer to find out the cab service from wherever he wants and the app displays all the nearest uber cabs available along with the price and waiting period. It also displays the rating of the cab drivers and also what type of vehicle they ride.

2) Different service types : The app provide different service types for the same ride. e.g. they have UberX, Uber XL etc. UberXL provides luxury vehicles with an extra charge as compared to Uber X which chrarges a comparatively low fare for the same ride.

3) Rating System : Rating system of the drivers allows the passengers to know how well mannered and trustworthy their cab driver can be. It gives a great level of comfort to the passengers if their driver holds an overall good rating. It helps the passengers to feel safe and it builds the bond of trust between the Company and it's customers.

4) Affordable: Uber is very cheap as compared to other Taxi services. Because of it's cashless transaction system, the cabs are much cleaner and newer as compared to other Taxi services.

5) Cab fare sharing system : Its a unique and innovative system implemented by Uber where customers can share their fare by sharing the same cab to the same or nearby destinations.

6) Cashless Transactions : Uber app allows the passengers go cashless every time as their credit cards can be linked to the Uber accounts. It eases the passengers to a great extent as they do not have to worry about cash shortage or change.

Disadvantages :

1) Primetime Pricing : Uber sometimes charges a fairly high rate to a certain destination when there is a peak time. For the same destination the price is lower when it's not a peak time as demand is lower in those hours than supply. E.g. Office closing hours is peak time when Uber also charges double or triple the normal rate.

2) Drivers sometimes tries o cheat their passengers by taking the longer routes, or driving slowly. By doing so they try to overcharge their customers.

3) Trip Cancellations : Many times drivers cancels the trip at the last minute without any valid reason. It’s an harassment to the customer.

4) Drivers earnings affected: Drivers need to hold new model cars to become a Uber drivers. They also bear most part of the repairs, fuel and other service charges. However their earning are quite low because of the growing competition and the offers that Uber provide to their passengers. It makes the drivers suffer financially.

Now if we look at Taxify which is renamed as Bolt has certain advantages over Uber :

a) Quick Booking : Taxify app provide a very quick booking service to their passengers with all the information on driver, taxi and price details. It eliminates the waiting time for the passengers which can be very helpful for them if they need to reach somewhere urgently.

b) Safety Button : Taxify innovated a safety button in their cars which can be used by both passenger and driver if they feel unsafe at any point of time.

c) Learning from Ubers mistakes : As Texify entered late into the cab service business , hence they got to learn a lot from Uber's mistakes and could rectify them easily.

d) Better wage to the drivers : Taxify helps their drivers get at least 10% extra wage after first two months by charging less commission than that of their competitors.