Uber Story Behind The People's Eye Screen
Anybody who commutes via ride-share in one of Southeast Asia's traffic-choked cities knows that Uber Technologies has always been an also-ran in the fast-growing region. Compared with Grab Taxi Holdings, the dominant ride-sharing company in Southeast Asia,1.) it consistently had fewer cars available 2.)and was perpetually behind in offering localized services. 3.)When Uber announced Monday that it was selling its Southeast Asian operations to Grab, it merely confirmed the worst-kept secret in Southeast Asian business.
Uber, however, might be holding on to an even bigger secret. As data sharing and online privacy become key concerns for governments worldwide, 4.)Uber and its competitors will be forced to invest in the locals rather than compete against them. Multinational ride-sharing companies 5.) like Uber will have to become regional players expert in local preferences, and in managing the governments who regulate them.
In many ways, Uber's failure in Southeast Asia reflects its struggles in other regions -- especially fast-growing developing ones. The first problem it faced was its lack of a first-mover advantage. The global availability of smartphones, mapping technology, and tech talent allowed companies to develop Uber-like services for local markets before Uber itself could arrive. In Southeast Asia, 6.)Grab was that company; it started offering rides a year ahead of Uber.
But even without that head start, 7.)Grab's founders had the advantage of knowing the locals better. For example, Grab offered a cash payment option as early as 2012 in order to expand the service to the millions of Southeast Asians who don't have credit cards. Uber, which entered the market in 2013, didn't offer a cash option until much later. And by the time Uber had caught up on cash payments, Grab and GoJek Indonesia, Indonesia's ride-share leader,8.) were building their platforms into nascent financial service providers for unbanked consumers across their emerging markets. Uber's single-minded focus on ride-sharing meant that it could never develop as deep a relationship with local consumers and drivers.
9.)Similar localization problems have dogged Uber elsewhere. In Nigeria, drivers are known to use a fake GPS itinerary app to boost Uber's discounted, unrealistic fares; in Kenya, Uber is playing catch-up with local ride-sharing 10.)Players that have expanded services to offer tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and the ability for companies to hail vehicles for employees; and in India, Uber is trailing home-grown Ola, which provides services in a dozen languages, allows users to hail rides via text message (crucial in countries where connectivity is poor and expensive), and -- like its Southeast Asian counterparts -- has moved past Uber into digital payments.
But the biggest threat to Uber -- and anyone else aspiring to create a multinational ride-sharing company -- is growing concern about data privacy. In the course of its brief history, 11.)Uber has been plagued by several scandals related to its handling of user data. So far, none of those have risen to a level of existential threat on the order of Facebook's recent privacy travails. But that's been a matter of luck more than planning. Ride-sharing companies gather and store massive amounts of the kinds of user data that other entities are keen to use, and that governments are determined to control and regulate.
Analysis Of Tenses
- Past perfect tense
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- Future perfect tense
- Past continuous tense
- Past perfect tense
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- Present perfect tense
- Present perfect tense
- Present perfect continuous tense
Reference :
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/28/uber-cant-afford-to-be-an-ugly-american-abroad.html
Accessed on March 28, 2018 at 18.00 pm
