Uber is entering the increasing B2B logistics market of India by extending its partnership with the non-profit organization supported by the Indian government which aims to break the domination of the Amazon electronic commerce duo and Flipkart supported by Walmart and to expand digital trade in the South Asian nation.
On Monday, the tension giant announced that it will soon launch its B2B logistics service via the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to help network companies access logistics on demand via a network of drivers of 1.4 million Uber, without disclosing a specific calendar. The service will initially allow food deliveries for companies operating on the open network, but aims to be extended to the logistics of electronic commerce, grocery store, pharmacy and even health care logistics.
With its new move, Uber will be available as a supplier of logistics services on ONDC, in competition with Shibrocket (Temasek and Paypal, supported by Paypal), Shadowfax (TPG, Qualcomm Ventures and eight roads), recent Indian Unicorn Porter and Tiger Global Loadshare.
It will be a white marking service and will work in the same way Direct Uber,, spear In the United States in 2020, but will be limited to companies available on the ONDC network, a person familiar with the plan told Techcrunch.
Uber’s foray into B2B logistics in India is following the expansion of the company in the consumer logistics space by introducing Courier XL In Delhi NCR and Mumbai earlier this month to help users provide important goods that can go up to 1,653 pounds from the Rider application of the company by choosing three and four-wheeled goods carriers. The company has also been offering its regular mail package service on two-wheelers for some time.
German logistics in general has meaning for Uber because the Indian logistics market should grow 49% At 13.4 billions of Indian rupees ($ 157 billion) during the year 2028 from 9 billions of Indian rupees (105 billion dollars) during the 2023 financial year, by Motilal Oswal. This decision will help Uber obtain another profitability analysis in India, after seeing a Increase of 41.1% in annual shift In its operating income in the country at $ 439 million last year. Its results from last year also showed that collections from rides increasing by 21.45% in annual sliding of the total operating income to $ 94.27 million.
However, Uber faces growing competition on the Indian carpooling market of local actors, including emerging players such as Rapido (Westbridge Capital and Nexus Ventures, supported by Ventures) and Namma Yatri (Google, Blume Ventures and Antler invested). Its diversification in new areas, such as logistics, should help the company based in San Francisco to maintain India as an important market.
In addition to its B2B logistics game, Uber has deployed a metro ticket office on its Rider application powered by ONDC, based on the understanding memorandum that the company signed with the visit of India, for non -profit, in the government of the government, Dara Khosrowshahi, India, in February, 2024.
Launched in 2021, the ONDC made its debut while the initiative of India to stimulate digital trade and allow small retailers to go online and reach customers easily. The network also extended to the mobility sector in 2023.
ONDC was initially designed to reproduce the success of the Indian government’s unified payment interface, aimed at stimulating the adoption of digital trade. However, he had a hard time gaining ground, because his open network model has not yet led the main players in the industry. Recent leadership churn Added to its challenges, even with its former director general and CEO, T. Koshy, who withdrew last month. Retail orders on the network decreased by almost 34% At 4.3 million in April, against a summit of 6.5 million in October.
“Uber’s initial activation of metro ticketing and logistics unlocks new possibilities – seamless multimodal trips to unify a fragmented logistics ecosystem,” said Vibhor Jain, CEO and acting COO in ONDC, in a prepared declaration. “This collaboration lays the basics of Uber’s future innovations on the network, improving the value of users, partners and the wider landscape of mobility and services.”
