Uber has cruised along in India despite hitting several bumps like rape allegations, driver protests, and unrelenting competition. This year, it overtook rival Ola for the first time, capturing 50% of the market versus the homegrown competitor’s 44.2% share.
On Dec. 13, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company released data for 2017 on how customers in its fastest-growing market like to use its services. They shed light on an array of consumer habits in India.
🕒 6 o’ clock is Uber o’ clock: Most rides were summoned at 6pm, Uber noted. This time of day “means a lot of things to different people in India: post-work movies, gym sessions, date night shenanigans—the works,” the company said. It is also probably because office-goers tend to leave work around this time, it suggested.
🕺 The weekend party: Fridays, the start of the weekend for many, are among Uber’s most hectic days. This year, the most Uber bookings on a single day came on Aug. 11—the Friday before Independence Day. And Oct. 30, a Monday, was “India’s least popular day to Uber,” the company said.
🍔 Food at the doorstep: UberEats, the food delivery service it launched in India in mid-2017, has found that the most ordered dish was samosa chole (an Indian snack consisting of vegetables, spices, and sometimes meat, wrapped in pastry and fried, served with a chickpea curry). The highest number of orders was placed on June 18, though it wasn’t a holiday or festival. “Guess we all ordered in for the India vs. Pakistan ICC Champions Final?” Uber said.
✈️ International jet-setters: “Wanderlust runs through India’s veins, with Uber being used in 566 cities in 80 countries,” Uber noted. The country other than India where Indians ordered the most number of rides was the US. Other destinations were Singapore, the UK, Malaysia, and the UAE.
🚕 Driving ahead: On May 20, Uber clocked it’s five billionth ride globally—in fact, they were 156 simultaneous trips, with India hosting 19 of them.