Just an update from a small red dot (aka Singapore). It seems that uber is slowly being left behind by more customer focused, SE Asian owned competition here in the form of Grab. Last few times I have tried to take uber or Grab from airport, uber has been 13+ mins, Grab has been 5 mins. Even now I can see 10 Grab cars within about 500m of my office. Uber has about 8 cars - within 2-3 km of the office. Grab has also been very aggressive in their marketing, most weeks you have a $4 -$5 off promo, Uber only occassionally matches with $3 off.
A few of the initiatives that I like:
- Grab have introduced "Just Grab" - which allocates a taxi or regular car like UberX. I've noticed outside peak hours, when taxis are sitting around doing not much, I will often be allocated a taxi (fare is usually similar to, perhaps slightly less than, hailing a taxi from street, although cheaper than booking - as you avoid the taxi booking fee).
- Grab have their own rewards system (better value than the uber's spg linkage) which equates to 2% of fare (if you pay with credit card or cash) or 4% (if you pay with "GrabPay" - you load on using credit card or Singapore's equivalent of BPAY). Rewards increase as you move from up the tiers (PS, NB, WP
)
- They have introduced "Grab Now" for paying for regular taxis you hail from the street - using the app (via linked credit card/GrabPay) by pairing driver/passengers apps - which credits the fare to the drivers bank account within 10 minutes, drivers like this.
- Various innovations with size of vehicles, car seats etc.
I suspect uber will slowly die a death here. They just seem to be too far removed from both customer and driver base. I guess they're biding time for driverless vehicles.