Chennai, India – July 06, 2017: Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation, today announced that Ola Play, the world’s first connected car platform for ridesharing, grew over 200% quarter on quarter in terms of the number of rides, and is now installed in over 50,000 Prime Play Cars. The significant growth witnessed in just six months of operations underpins the increasing importance of the customer and driver partner experience, and the technological shift towards a more integrated and connected world.
The first phase that transferred the control of the ride experience to the backseat, now brings deeper integrations for both - customers and driver partners. This involves a more context-aware platform for customers and an intelligent platform that seamlessly connects with the car as a smart IoT machine for efficient driving. Customer research has revealed that depending on the length of the ride, customers across demographics love to engage with latest as well as retro Bollywood and Hollywood music, watch movies, short web series, tune in to the radio, as well as let their kids enjoy animated videos. Ola Play offers all of this and a lot more. With a significant increase from the initial set of partners, Play now has over 30 partners across categories such as Apple Music, EROS Now, BookMyShow, AIB, and Lattu Kids, among several others. In addition to this, content will be curated based on their choices made and the destination they are riding to, making Play an intuitive platform.
Ankit Jain, Vice President and Head of Ola Play, said,“The appreciation and growth Ola Play has seen in a short span of time, is extremely exciting for us; but it is only the beginning for the industry’s first connected car platform for ridesharing. We are looking forward to launching Play for customers in several other cities, and providing a more enriching experience with an intelligent and context-aware platform. Jain adds, “At the core of these innovations is the focus on building a platform that ensures the ride is enjoyable, safe, and secure for both, the customer and driver partner.”
Ola also announced today that Play has been launched as a pilot in Chennai, Pune and Kolkata, enabling access to Ola Play in a total of seven cities across India, and sets sights on 10 more cities by end of 2017. The increased availability of Ola Play will not only serve Ola’s growing customer base, but is in line with the company’s strategy to use innovative technology to offer customized mobility solutions for all Indians.
The experience of the platform will change to give way to a more convenient app-like experience for seamless navigation between options on the platform. With this feature, customers will be able to interact with Play and partner apps just the way they use various apps on their mobile phones, accessing the entire range of content made available by the partner on their app.
