Ola expands to Australia, begins service in Sydney

Uber, Ola's main competitor in Australia, currently operates in 19 cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra.

Indian cab hailing firm Ola said n Monday that it has started operations in Sydney, expanding its services in the Australian market.

Last month, the company had kick-started its services in Australia with Perth. In January, the SoftBank-backed company had announced its plans to foray into the Australian market.

Ola is now officially operating in Sydney and has hired a local team to build partnerships and support driver-partners, it said in a statement.

"Ola's focus is on investing in driver-partners and supporting them with new technology, training, and ways to increase earnings," it added.

Uber is Ola's main competitor in the Australian market.

Interestingly, SoftBank is also an investor in Uber.

Uber launched its operations in Australia in 2012 and currently operates in 19 Australian cities including the major cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra.

The companies are already locked in an intense battle for leadership in the Indian market. They compete not only in the ride-sharing space in India but also food delivery, with Ola acquiring Foodpanda's India business.

US-based Uber, which is one of the world's most valued start-ups, runs on-demand food delivery app UberEATs in select Indian cities.

Ola said, since the launch in Perth, the service has received over 7,000 registrations from driver-partners.

“We are excited to officially start operating on the east coast with the launch in Sydney. We've been very pleased with how the service has been received by customers, driver-partners and the community in Perth, and can't wait to continue building on these experiences and learnings for  our second city launch," Ola vice- president, head of international, Chandra Nath said.

The Bengaluru-based company said in the coming weeks, it will continue to roll out a number of new initiatives for both customers and driver-partners in Sydney, including promotions, earnings programme and feedback sharing.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters