Ola launches 'Share'- first of its kind social ride-sharing

Customers will now be able to take advantage of a first of its kind social ride-sharing system, with the same comfort and convenience of booking an Ola, now far more economical since the ride can be shared with up to two other users from social groups that a user is part of.

OlaShare will now be available in beta, to select users in Bangalore and across 5 cities over the next three months. Customers can use Ola Share at an introductory fare of Rs 50 anywhere in Bangalore, for any number of rides.

Customers can now travel with users from social groups they choose to be part of, without having to share their ride with strangers, allowing for increased privacy.

To enable this, Ola has introduced the concept of social groups on its app. With Groups, colleagues from a workplace and friends from a college can come together to share rides amongst themselves. A user can join multiple groups or simply choose to share a ride with anyone. As soon as a user requests a Share ride on the Ola app, they will be matched with other users from their groups along their way.

Ishan Gupta, Head - Ola Share said, “At Ola, our goal is to build mobility for a billion Indians and this requires us to innovate constantly, for the future. WithShare, we not only bring economy, convenience and comfort of travelling with people in your circles, but also increased inventory utilization of vehicles on the platform. This will also contribute towards significant reduction of traffic, congestion and pollution in our cities. Ola Share is a major step in the direction of sustainable transportation, allowing us to serve more people at a fraction of the cost, with driver-partners benefitting from increased revenue.”