Earlier this month, Uber launched a bus service in Cairo, Egypt. The service allows users to reserve a seat for themselves on a clean, air-conditioned high-quality bus. Like Uber Pool, Uber Bus would also match you with the riders going in the same direction. As of now, Uber has advertised only two routes that would operate on Sunday-Thursday from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM. Uber has not mentioned any frequency of buses and neither any comment has been made on how many buses they have.

India, The Next Testing Ground

If Uber’s global firsts are anything to go by, Uber Bus might soon expand its operations in India. Maybe in next 6-8 months after gathering learnings and data from Cairo, Uber Bus could start operating in India. India offers to be a perfect testing ground for Uber given the fact that the public transport in many cities except the metros is quite chaotic and unorganized.

The Key Reasons for Uber To Launch The Bus Service In India

Uber has been creating several campaigns around the use of public transport in India and has shown a keen interest in the country.

Uber has been gathering data for Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Delhi and also announced a pilot for ExpressPool in India.

India offers a great opportunity for the bus service especially for the office employees who do not have their own vehicle or get pick up and drop services from the office.

The bus service will also be good for Uber’s portfolio showcasing to the investors. Bus service will allow anywhere between 10-40 people ride at one time and will be better for the environment too with less of a carbon footprint.

Competition

Whenever Uber Buses launch in India, they will face competition from the following:

ZipGo, which currently operates in Bangalore and Pune, for office employees and individual riders

Shuttl, which recently acquired Commut with the Middle Eastern company Careem (which Uber had plans to merge with), and raised about $11 million led by Amazon India etc.

Easy Commute in Hyderabad