Uber names India head Jain as chief of Asia-Pacific business
BENGALURU: Amit Jain, who leads the India business of the world’s largest ride-hailing service Uber Technologies, has been tasked with heading its entire Asia Pacific business, signalling the company’s intention to focus on markets such as Australia and take on Indian rival Ola, which recently launched its service in that country.
Jain, who has been designated regional general manager of Asia Pacific for Uber, will oversee the company’s operations in Australia, New Zealand and North Asia as part of his new role, while continuing to manage the India and South Asia businesses. Uber appointed Jain as its India head in June 2015. Jain’s elevation comes weeks after Ola expanded its service in Australia, launching in Brisbane, Canberra and the Gold Coast. Over the coming months, Ola is expected to launch in several more cities in the country.
In a statement, Uber said that India and South Asia continued to be strategically important markets for the company. In an interview last year during the aftermath of co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick’s ouster from Uber, Jain had emphasized that India remained a priority for the company and the cab-hailing firm would double down on its investments in the country.
“Business in India is absolutely rock solid. It continues to grow at an exponential rate. We continue to grow the number of cars that are there on our platform. India continues to be a very strategic market for Uber,” Jain had said in an interview on July 3.
His elevation comes at a time when Uber is engaged in a bruising market share battle in the entire Asia Pacific region against local rivals such as Ola, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., a common investor in both startups.