Betting on product localisation for growth of its services in India, cab aggregator Uber is looking at ramping up human resource at its R&D centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad, the company’s head for India & South Asia markets Pradeep Parameswaran said on Thursday.
While Mr. Parameswaran said that India is going to be the largest tech presence for the company outside of its home market U.S., he did not disclose any figures.
“We have started to push for localisation of our products and initiatives…the tech centre we have in Bangalore and Hyderabad are scaling up rapidly. There is tremendous amount of pressure on those teams to hire but more importantly they are building products for markets like India from those centres,” he said.
He further pointed out its Uber Lite application, designed to work in low-connectivity areas, is an example of India first innovation. The application was recently launched in Latin America as well.
Replying to a query, Mr. Parameswaran reiterated that Uber is “deeply committed” to grow in India.
“…We [India] are getting supported in every which way to win big in this market place… support not just in form of funds but also in form of products investment, product technology investment as a lot of customisation,” he said.
Additionally, he said the company will soon launch a new two-way call anonymisation feature on its platform. Post this, while drivers and riders will be able to reach out to each other, their mobile number will remain anonymous.
Mr. Parameswaran also added that the company is looking at expanding operations beyond the existing 31 cities, as opposed to rival Ola which is present in over 100 cities. However, he refused to comment on the number of cities or the timeline.
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