Now book an Uber with a Web-app

Uber isn’t leaving any stones unturned to beat local cab-hailing service Ola in India. Continuing its aggressive approach to target huge potential user base in the country, the US-based company has launched a dial-in feature of sorts for non-smartphone users to book an Uber.

So, instead of downloading an app in your smartphone, you can directly go to a mobile website — dial.uber.com and request a taxi. With this move, the company is hoping to attract more customers by creating new ways and making its service more accessible to a wider user base. Though India has close to 900 million mobile phone connections, only around sixty percent of them have smartphones.

The service is currently available in select Tier-II/III cities, including Nagpur, Kochi, Guwahati, and Jodhpur and the company has not yet clarified whether it intends to introduce this service in other cities later or not.

After settling its competition and rivalry with DidiChuxing in China, Uber has come out all guns blazing in India. Since beginning, the company has followed an India centric, customized approach in the country. It introduced cash payment and pre-paid wallets for the Indian market, while it only supports credit cards in the US and Europe. At one point, it also offered transportation categories like auto rickshaws and bikes.

Lately, Uber has been coming with new strategies as per the demands and current market scenario in India in order to move past Ola, its local rival. Uber claims to have acquired 40 percent of the market share in India.

The ride hailing service has also been forming partnerships with other startups in India to get more customers. it joined hands with Zomato, allowing its users to book cabs to visit restaurants using the Zomato app. Last month, it also partnered with Snapdeal to enable car bookings directly from Snapdeal’s app.