Reliance Jio Aims to Disrupt Taxi Space With App-Based Taxi Service: Report

Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has disrupted the Indian telecom space with free data and voice services, pushing other telecom operators to consider merger and acquisition strategies, is now planning to disrupt India’s taxi space with the launch of an app-based taxi service. Reliance Jio Cabs, expected to be launched as early as this year.

Reliance Jio claims to be a digital company than mere a telecom operator, and it already offers a slew of digital services spanning across video, music, Live TV and cloud service among others.

The Mukesh Ambani-led 4G entrant has reportedly ordered around 600 cars for its fleet from makers such as Mahindra and Hyundai to begin the service.

Jio’s taxi service is likely to be launched in Bangalore and Chennai initially, followed by a similar launch in Delhi and Mumbai, according to FactorDaily. It also reported that Jio is looking to bring in aggressive pricing to take on companies like Uber and Ola in the taxi service segment.

According to the publication sources, Jio has also appointed consulting firm E&Y to advise it on pricing strategies that align with Reliance Industries Chairman Ambani’s plans to go all out to get market share.

Reliance Jio has been offering free data and voice services, and it has recently crossed over 100 million customers before its March 31, 2017, target. The telco recently announced its Prime service for these 100 million customers and new customers joining Jio network before March 31, 2017.

Under the Prime service, Jio subscribers will have to pay Rs. 303 every month for the next one year and will get 1GB of data every day, or 30GB in a month, which is a much higher quantum and far cheaper than any of the offers of incumbent operators, besides paying a nominal opt-in charge of Rs 99.

Jio will also start charging its customers starting April 1, 2017