India is one of the toughest markets, says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi

Bengaluru: Ride-hailing app Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Indians are extremely demanding, but are not willing to pay for anything. The Uber top boss was in conversation with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani in Bengaluru on Thursday at an interactive session on building population scale technology.“India is one of the toughest markets out there. If we can succeed here, we can succeed anywhere,” Khosrowshahi said. Uber is also planning to expand to low-cost service segments of two-wheelers and three-wheelers in India. The company will be getting into bus services in some of the geographies. “It is also an extraordinary opportunity for us to expand our services to a wider population. We don't just want to be an upper-middle-class product. We want to be available to everybody.”Khosrowshahi said companies and governments around the world can learn from the scale and ambition of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure. He added that as a technology company, Uber views open-source tech stacks with a lot of interest and recognises the opportunities they bring for everyone.Khosrowshahi said that Uber's approach has changed since the pandemic. As much as the focus is on the customers, he also said there is a growing focus on improving the experience for its drivers. Uber has signed an MoU with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to explore an integration with the network to expand the range of mobility offerings on the Uber application.Khosrowshahi said that Uber made $3 billion in terms of profits during the pandemic. Uber also lost 85% of its volumes overnight during the lockdown that led to laying off some of its employees. Uber operates across 125 cities in India and has clocked 3 billion trips in the last ten years.