SoftBank-backed Indian ride-hailing giant Ola has secured a fourth place in the list of most downloaded ride-sharing and taxi apps worldwide in October—partially thanks to its recent international expansion—while the US-based Uber stuck to its first position for two consecutive months, according to a report by mobile intelligence platform SensorTower.
Uber was the most downloaded ride-sharing and taxi app across iOS and Android mobile devices, but Ola managed to be on the fourth position in the ‘overall’ category following Southeast Asian taxi-hailing platform Grab and China’s DiDi. Grab was installed 3.8 million times globally in October, with Indonesians having the maximum share of downloads at 38%, followed by Vietnam’s 17%.
Compared to Uber, which has been a known global brand much before Ola, latter recently forayed into foreign markets, a couple of years ago starting with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In 2018, it launched in three countries including Australia, UK, and New Zealand in February, August, and November, respectively.
Ola didn’t perform well when it came to its app downloads for iOS devices where it didn’t even manage to get on the top 10 list. It appeared on the third spot for app downloads on Android handsets.
The Bengaluru-headquartered company is currently present in over 20 cities across three countries including UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It had invested around USD 60 million into its international operations by May this year to compete with its common global rival Uber as well as local companies in respective countries. Uber poses as its biggest competition which is available in over 60 countries and 400 cities.
Talking about Ola’s global investments local media Economic Times quoted a source saying, “The international business alone is expected to contribute more than a third of Ola’s consolidated revenue by the end of this financial year.”
All its global operations are handled by its Singapore listed entity Ola Singapore that received USD 6 million from its parent company ANI Technologies.