Seeing Startup Culture In Uber Persistence

UberMOTOR, Uber's two-wheeled transportation service for Indonesia officially launched yesterday (13/4). His steps to enter the national market in the midst of Go-Jek's war and GrabBike, questioned by many parties. Prior to Indonesia, UberMOTOR, or elsewhere, UberMOTO, was already present in Thailand and several cities in India.

Like marathon athletes, startups run their business at a fast tempo, tend to run. Although resilience and sustainability are required, in the end, the fastest is awarded as the winner. But unfortunately, the path of startup founders is not only straight and curvy, but also steep, uphill, and full of obstacles. The culture forces them to keep running and be persistent and flexible to maneuver. When faced with a dead end, founders have to think of another route while maintaining their best position.

Focus on solving problems and offering solutions for the right market. If you have to pivot, make sure the decisions and intuitions are supported by valid data. Such is the role of founders in bringing their business to an exponential level of scalability. As the world's fastest growing valuation startup, Uber is not only changing the way conventional businesses work, but also redefining how technology-driven companies work; that the product is no longer what is on the desktop computer screen, and involves people on the streets.

As is the case in Indonesia, Uber has been under great attack in its home country. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has to explain to the government that his company is not a taxi company, but a technology company. Idea pricing arises commented, Travis should explain the idea sharing economy. Travis decided to remove "cab" from Ubercab (the name before Uber). Obstacles keep popping up, but Uber continues to pave the way, even in Indonesia.

Born and grown up in the United States, Uber's challenge is the world, especially China and India, which have a bigger market than their homeland.

Horizontal challenge

Successfully educating the Chinese and Indian markets, Uber tried its luck by competing with local players such as Didi Kuaidi and Ola Cabs. The response was great, but interestingly Uber hasn't been able to reach it yet marketing leader in these two giant markets. In China, Didi Kuaidi service (which is the result of the merger of two services car hailing big) is an unattainable figure for Uber today.

Although there are slight differences, Uber, which operates in 26 cities in India, remains in the shadow of Ola Cabs. The Travis camp cut travel fares to reach a wider audience in these cities.

For the case in Indonesia, it is not yet possible to determine who will win between Uber and Grabcar. As if the war wasn't bloody enough, Uber instead entered a new, bigger battlefield through UberMOTOR. Although it tends to be late in acquiring driver-partner supplies, the UberMOTOR scheme is a maneuver for Uber's slow pace due to its feud with Organda DKI. The DKI Transportation Agency finally froze Uber in terms of adding to the car fleet. Uber is expanding into an unregulated realm: taxibike.

Given the culture and persistence, I'm sure Uber can take a slice marketshare significant in the application-based motorcycle taxi sector. Although we are pessimistic that the UberMOTOR service can say a lot in the midst of competition from Go-Jek and GrabBike, Uber has shown many startups that to achieve a goal, including the desire to dominate the market, various paths can be taken.