Ola ups its competition with Uber by broadening its e-wallet services
Ola, India&rsquo;s largest cab-hailing service, said yesterday that Ola Money, a personal e-wallet, can now be used to pay for services on other e-commerce platforms as well as for Ola rides (it was previously closed and could only be used to pay for Ola services). Ola has been expanding into new businesses to match its larger rival Uber, and this is seen as a significant step forward, resulting in multiple reports today asking if Uber can really survive in India without a local mobile wallet.
Ola Money, online cab aggregator Ola’s in app wallet for payments, can now be used to pay for other companies like Oyo Rooms, Lenskart and Saavn among others across India. Ola Money users will also be offered promotional cashbacks and discounts from merchants in the initial roll out integration. Note that in March, Ola told MediaNama that its in-app wallet Ola Money was a closed system payment instrument. Closed system payment instruments do not permit cash withdrawal or redemption. As such, these instruments cannot facilitate payments and settlement for third-party services. However, Ola told MediaNama that it has tied up with ZipCash for its wallet services. ZipCash got its semi closed payments instrument licence from the Reserve Bank of India in 2009. ZipCash had previously introduced a mobile payment service called M-Wallet which offered peer-to-peer money transfer on any mobile of any operator across India, in partnership with Loop Mobile. Ola claims to have 20 million customers on its platform and claims to be the among the top 3 mobile wallets in India by transaction volume. Ola also claims that its wallet sees ‘high frequency usage and recharge’. It claims that with an average wallet balance of Rs 1,000, Ola Money is the most preferred payment option across Ola’s transport services of cabs, autos, kaali peeli taxis, Ola Cafe (food delivery) and Ola Store (grocery delivery). It currently claims to have over 200,000 vehicles (including cabs, autorickshaws and kaali peeli taxis) on its platform. Last month, appointed Sundeep Sahni as the VP of new initiatives. Ola…

Please subscribe login to read the full story.