India to determine Uber’s growth, says Khosrowshahi

The chief executive of ride-hailing giant Uber Inc. on Thursday said he is currently focusing on his India product, though he admitted to not being sure if growth in the country would come through a merger somewhere down the line.

The presence of common investor SoftBank in Uber and rival Ola has spawned speculation that the two ride-hailing companies may unite at some point. “I think the five-year sense is that we are going to be in the Indian market—who knows whether it will be through a merger, etc!” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told reporters in Delhi. “Right now, I will tell you my focus is investing in the Indian market, improving our product and at this point, I am not thinking mergers and acquisitions,” Khosrowshahi said.

On his first India visit, Khosrowshahi said India is a core market for the San Francisco-based firm, and that the company’s growth over the next 5-10 years will be “very much” determined by how the story plays out in India.

Discussions around a possible Uber-Ola merger are not new. In the past, Uber has deployed a similar strategy to exit markets where it faced strong local competition or felt it was losing too much money.

In August 2016, it sold China operations to local heavyweight Didi Chuxing, and about a year later, ceded Russia by merging the local unit with Yandex NV.

A CNBC report on February 16 said Uber could be preparing to sell its South-East Asia unit to Singapore’s Grab.

SoftBank nominee on Uber board Rajeev Misra told The Financial Times last month that Uber could achieve profitability faster if it focused on its core markets—the US, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

For now, though, it seems Uber will continue to plough millions of dollars to grow the business and fight off competition.

Khosrowshahi said Uber will expand its engineering team in India “three-four times” over the next year and push for the adoption of Uber Pool, its ride-share offering, two-wheeler service Uber Moto and focus extensively on UberEats, the food delivery vertical it introduced here last year.

Right now, I will tell you my focus is investing in the Indian market DARA KHOSROWSHAHI, Uber chief executive officer