A fascinating scenario is unfolding in the fast-growing taxi aggregation space in India, on the lines of the one playing out between homegrown giant Flipkart and global behemoth Amazon in the ecommerce sector. Ola, co-founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and his IIT-Bombay batchmate Ankit Bhati, has indeed come a long way from the days they were in the business of selling weekend holidays and outstation car rentals. Today, valued at $5 billion, Ola is the leading player in the Indian cab-hailing business, having used technology smartly to build a formidable company in just three to four years. But, as in ecommerce, the landscape in taxi aggregation is also changing dramatically. For one, global major Uber, which senses a huge opportunity in the 300-million-trips-a-day Indian market, is now firmly entrenched in India and getting stronger. Add to that some regulatory hurdles around licensing, surge pricing and pollution control norms, and you have a cocktail of challenges both Ola and rival Uber have to contend with.
(This story appears in the 24 June, 2016 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)