Indian cab aggregator Ola on Friday said the firm is focussing on building a sustainable business and will turn profitable in two years even as it used the analogy of “Vietnam War” to describe competition with its US-based rival Uber.
“...This is corporate war and the competition between us and Uber is very intense... The analogy that I gave about India is that this is like Vietnam War.
“We are the local guerillas...We have the Americans carpet bombing us but we will go into the nooks and corners of the country and we will find those opportunities in niche areas and in large areas,” Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said at a TiE event here.
He added that the Bengaluru-based company is focussing on building “more sustainable” and profitable solutions to grow its market share in the on-demand transportation market in India.
“We have significantly improved our bottom-line over the past year or so and we have a very clear path to profitability . Within the next two years, we will be profitable,” he said.
Previously, Indian startups like Ola and Flipkart have raised concerns about “capital dumping” by global rivals like Uber and Amazon, who have deep pockets and are investing heavily in the Indian market.
They had urged that the Government should design policies that favour home grown companies. However, this also drew a flak from many quarters that viewed the statement as being protectionist.
Aggarwal said it is for the Government to decide how they want to deal with capital dumping.
“It is for the relevant Government agencies to decide what capital dumping is and what is not. We are focussed on building a business which is impactful,” Aggarwal said.