Uber seeks to make inroads in Mena region

Uber, the transport app, is set to expand to Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain, and launch new products in the UAE, the company’s Middle East manager said.

The app, which connects users with private car companies and drivers, was launched in Cairo on Thursday. It is now used in 216 cities.

“Our team in the region has grown by 10 times over the last year ... customers over the last year have grown by 17 times,” said Jambu Palaniappan, the regional manager of Uber in the Middle East and Africa.

Uber is likely to release new products for the UAE market soon, Mr Palaniappan said.

He mentioned three recent Uber launches that would soon arrive in the UAE: UberFresh, a lunch delivery service, UberEssentials, which delivers local corner shop goods to customers, and UberRush, a courier service.

While the company’s current focus is on building the reliability of its network in the UAE, he said, “at some point we will start pursuing those [new products] more formally here”.

Uber is looking to use its access to a transport network to solve a broader range of problems. “Today we’re an on-demand transportation service, tomorrow logistics, and in the future on-demand lifestyle,” Jean-Pierre Mondalek, Uber’s general manager for the UAE, said in September.

“If we can deliver a car to you in five minutes, there’s not a lot we can’t deliver to you in five minutes,” Mr Palaniappan said.

“As cities grow, the need for viable, price-transparent services to move people and goods within those cities only increases,” he said. “As we look at Jebel Ali and Dubai World Central, and the growth of the logistics business here, we are thinking about ways we can help support that existing infrastructure”

But the app is being held back in the UAE by a shortage of drivers, Mr Palaniappan said.

“We have technology that can help solve infrastructure challenges,” he said. “We just need a few more cars.”

“We cannot put enough cars on the road to meet latent demand in the Middle East. We are desperately looking for additional partners to come put cars on platform.

“It’s a unique challenge in this region, because many of our drivers are from abroad and so there’s a longer lead time to find those drivers and have them sponsored.”

Mr Palaniappan hopes that Uber’s partner companies will increase the number of cars they put on the road in response to high demand.

“For many of our partner companies it’s a pretty basic financial equation – they see the revenue and cash flow they can generate with Uber for their companies and their shareholders, so it’s in their interest to bring on board more cars and drivers.”

The company has faced hostility from courts and local taxi companies in a number of European countries, amid fears that the app will destroy local jobs.

Uber has not faced the same hostility in the Middle East that has hindered the company in Europe, Mr Palaniappan said.

“We’ve been really welcomed in this region,” he said. “We partner with locally owned and operated providers that have the relevant licensure and are registered with the existing ministries. We work with the existing supply base.”

US consumers protested after allegations that the Uber executive Emil Michael used the company’s data to track a journalist without her permission, and that the company hired researchers “specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticised the company”, according to Buzzfeed.

“These recent comments are comments that are not indicative of our philosophy,” Mr Palaniappan said. “The executive in question has apologised, and Uber’s access to information is only used when customers have an issue that needs to be resolved.”

The company has since published a blog post stating that “Uber has a strict policy prohibiting all employees at every level from accessing a rider or driver’s data”.

abouyamourn@thenational.ae

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