Uber, the online taxi giant, has officially announced its launch in Pakistan.
The service will initially be available in Lahore and will then gradually move to Karachi and Islamabad, technology site Techin Asia reported earlier today.
“We’re extremely excited to be here, there’s huge potential in this market and people have welcomed us with open arms,” Loic Amado, international launcher at Uber said.
“Twenty per cent of all ecommerce transactions happen in Lahore, which is why we’re here first. We’re looking forward to filling a gap in the existing transportation network.”
In October last year, Uber’s career page advertised three top manager positions in Lahore.
“We want to launch by the end of the year or at the latest by early next year,” Shaden Abdellatif, Uber’s head of communications for the Middle East and Africa, had told Reuters.
Uber Technologies Inc, currently valued at over $50 billion, uses a free GPS-enabled app to link drivers from private car companies to passengers at cheaper rates and promises a quicker response time — often within 10 minutes.
The company, founded in 2009, has expanded more quickly globally than any company in history and is operating in 300 cities in over 60 countries.
The Pakistan launch of Uber comes after other taxi-hailing ventures, such as German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi app, have failed to penetrate the market.
Uber usually uses credit cards or other electronic payment methods to charge customers but the company plans to develop new products and payment solutions for Pakistan, where credit cards are much rarer than Internet connections.
In neighbouring India, the government temporarily banned Uber after an Uber driver was accused of rape.
