BENGALURU: After hinting in 2015 about its intentions to roll into Pakistan, Uber started its operation on March 2, 2016 in Lahore. It has been 3 months since then, and Pakistani citizens have welcomed the American multinational online transportation network firm with open arms. But things are now becoming slightly difficult for Uber as a little-known local competitor is setting up a competition. Named Rixi, the Lahore-based service has counted on a mix of new ideas and old technology to tap low-income residents who travel in rickshaws, not cabs reports Reuters.

The local service providers have targeted a big chunk of the market as their service is based on rickshaws instead of cars. Not only this, SMS phone messaging instead of smart-phones is been used by this platform to allow users in bidding the nearby drivers.

According to reports, more than 130 million cellphone subscriptions are present in Pakistan, out of which only 21 percent have subscribed to data packages. This gives massive opportunities for firms to target a relatively low-tech customer base. Adnan Khawaja, the founder of Rixi stated, “Our company works with more than 1,000 rickshaw drivers in Lahore, where many people rely on small, noisy three-wheelers that are well suited to beating traffic in the eastern city's crowded streets”.

Cellphone towers are being leveraged by this Lahore-based service provider to by-poll the location of the drivers which bypasses poor smart-phone penetration in the low-income rickshaw market. The platform matches passengers' messaged locations on Google Maps for the drivers to locate them. "If you look at Uber's operational model, they will be depending on the smartphones. In countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, that population is growing, but it's still smaller compared to the vast market," commented Khawaja.

When asked about this prominent competition to Uber, their head of expansion in Pakistan, Zohair Yousafi stated, “We continue to explore products that would stimulate demand , and better service the city, whether that is a motorbike, whether that is a rickshaw, whether that is a chopper.” Uber also stated that they had already tested SMS-based services, but there are no immediate plans to deploy such a service in Pakistan.

Another entrepreneur, Shehmir Shaikh has recently launched errand start-up Scooty Bhejo in Lahore, attacking Uber’s customer base in Pakistan. "Abroad, Uber has made waves because of the readily available technology that people are using, like iPhones in their hands. We don't have that here. (And) the major form of transport is not cars," added Shaikh.

Though there will be plenty of roadblocks in the road to success for Rixi, Adam Ghaznavi a technology entrepreneur who has studied the rickshaw market is confident of Rixi’s success in Pakistan. “Pakistan will not necessarily be a large market for taxi ride hailing apps like Uber, but it could be very lucrative for an equivalent app for rickshaws. If somebody can figure that out, the potential is huge,” stated Ghaznavi.

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