Uber and Ola play fast and furious in the Indian on-demand taxi industry

Uber has launched its services in seven more cities in India. It was announced today that Uber will now be present in Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Indore, Vishakapatnam, Surat and Nagpur.

Uber in India has been witnessing massive growth and people are getting more dependent on its services. “The rapid 40% MoM growth we continue to see in India is unprecedented and it is not surprising that some of the fastest growing cities in the world are also here,” Neeraj Singhal, head of expansion for India & the Subcontinent for Uber, said in a statement earlier today.

The service is now active in 18 cities, and India is now the largest geographic market for Uber.

Earlier today, local Uber competitor Ola acquired funding from Ratan Tata. Ola acquired TaxiForSure earlier this year for US$200 million, so Uber isn’t the only company spending big in the hopes of grabbing up the Indian taxi-app market.

Bleeding money

Although Uber is valued at US$50 billion, it was recently reported that Uber is generating more operating losses than revenue. It has raised over US$10 billion and is active in 300 cities across the world.

Ola has also been recording a loss of US$12 million per month, but plans to sustain in the industry because of the scope of acquiring more share in the Indian market.

As per reports, the organised sector in the taxi hiring market is going to grow to 15 percent from 5 percent in the next five years. With Ola and Uber fighting neck and neck to acquire more market share, there is a palpable amount of heat in the Indian on-demand taxi service industry.