Enterprising firms cash in on polls
ONLY a few savvy companies used the general election this week to put their names up in lights — with online taxi service Uber leading the queue.
Uber, the $3.7-billion start-up based in San Francisco that launched in South Africa last August, offered voters free rides to polling stations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Taxis are ordered using a smartphone app, which introduces users to chauffeurs and can tell them what the previous passengers’ experience was of the cab, and track where the cab is on the road.
Anthony le Roux, Uber’s general manager for Cape Town, would not reveal how successful this scheme was, but said it was “busier than normal”.
It’s an obvious marketing gimmick, one that Uber has used with some fanfare to offer free rides to voters in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Augustine Marakalala, an Uber cab driver in Johannesburg, said that he was “pretty sure” most of the people he drove had voted for the DA, based on the conversations he overheard in the car.
Perhaps this was to be expected from a taxi service that is ordered through a smartphone application and can be paid only by credit or debit card.
“Most of the people we drove were in Pretoria East and Centurion,” said Marakalala.
Niyaaz Dollie, who drives for Uber in Cape Town, said he too was busier than usual with voters he carried to the CBD in Cape Town and the Atlantic Seaboard.
In luxury cab services, Uber is the current leader. Its closest competition, Lyft, is available in 30 countries. Uber is in 35 countries and 100 cities around the world.
Whether Uber got the bang it wanted for its marketing buck with this gimmick remains to be seen, but it was not the only one displaying community spirit.
Wimpy fast-food outlets offered free cups of coffee to all customers with thumbs that had been inked at polling stations.
The Fish & Chip Company, which is owned by Taste Holdings, also had a “voters’ special” of a cutprice Russian sausage, chips and a can of Coke.
Elsewhere, cellphone companies are likely to have made extra cash from all the last-minute SMSes sent out by the duelling parties, while the red beret industry prob- ably hit previously untouched heights.
In India’s marathon election, fuel stations are offering 83c off petrol and cinemas free popcorn.