• Cryptocurrency
  • Earnings
  • Enterprise
  • About TechBooky
  • Submit Article
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
TechBooky
  • African
  • AI
  • Metaverse
  • Gadgets
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
  • African
  • AI
  • Metaverse
  • Gadgets
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
TechBooky
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Home African

A Second Look At That Uber Lagos Expansion News Even As Challenges Persist

Paul Balo by Paul Balo
September 7, 2015
in African, App, Enterprise, Gadgets, Internet, Mobile, Research/How to do it, Reviews
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Uber; a taxi (transportation scheme) technology firm based in San Francisco has celebrated its one year of existence in Nigeria and is planning to expand its operations within Nigeria by announcing partnerships with Kia to boost the number of drivers in Lagos to 3,000 by the end of 2016. This represents a fivefold increase. With the help of Access Bank, down payments on new cars will reduce to 95k Naira from 200k Naira.

In many countries including developed ones like France, Uber has faced a number of obstacles especially from traditional taxi drivers in cities like London.

That said, let’s take a closer look at Uber’s operations across the African continent. Uber currently operates in more than 300 cities worldwide despite the challenges from various unions. File illustration picture showing the logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone next to the picture of an official German taxi signSo for those who don’t know how it works, the service connects passengers to nearest cars based on proximity. This could be very good if you stay in Lagos with traffic in mind. That said, three things come to mind;

1. Internet Service availability: In Nigeria, there’s a relatively good 3G coverage from Telcos with broadband service providers increasing the coverage areas as well. Having established that, the other challenge is the billing and service quality. 

INTERNET USERS AND POPULATION STATISTICS FOR AFRICA

AFRICA REGIONPopulation
(2014 Est.)
Pop. %
of World
Internet Users,
31-Dec-2013
Penetration
(% Population)
Internet
% Users
Facebook
31-Dec-2012
Total for Africa1,125,721,03815.7 %240,146,48221.3 %8.6 %51,612,460
Rest of World6,056,137,58184.3 %2,562,332,45242.3 %91.4 %924,331,500
WORLD TOTAL7,181,858,619100.0 %2,802,478,93439.0 %100.0 %975,943,960

This has affected the number of hours users can actually spend online and this is really important to the Uber taxi service which requires its users to be online to access its service. The average Nigerian has to turn off mobile data regularly in order to make savings on data in a 148 million strong mobile market.

2. Smartphone penetration: An Informa report projects that there will be about 334 million Smartphone connections by 2017 in the near 1 billion strong mobile market on the African continent. This represents about 30% of the total population on the continent. Not a bad number if you look at where we’re coming from. A separate Ericsson report predicts that Africa and Asia will account for nearly 80% of the total smartphone market. That’s not surprising when you consider that these two regions have seven of the ten most populous nations. With economies improving, there is bound to be a rise in demand for tech gadgets including smartphones. That said, the market is still centred around the urban areas which the African Development Bank puts at about 40%. But what are smartphones without access to quality internet services?

3. Mapping: Lastly, mapping is critical to Uber’s business and the poor mapping may be a huge challenge as the average Nigerian don’t know their post code. The driver either has to know where you are in order to provide this service efficiently or would have to seek directions from people who know. Roads and lanes have not been well defined and mapped. In a Bloomberg article, Uber’s Alon Lits, who is the general manager for sub-Saharan Africa says they are working with other technology companies on ways to direct drivers without access to conventional directions.

Uber is looking to strengthen its operations in South Africa where it has met with some obstacles and is now asking the government to create laws that take into account its business model. Kenya and other major African nations have started seeing this service as well. Lagos is Africa’s biggest city by population.

 

 

Related Posts:

  • Uber-1
    AUATWON Is Instigating Uber And Bolt Drivers To…
  • uber lawsuit
    Uber In Settlement With US Prosecutors Admits…
  • Nigerian E-hailing Drivers Union Gets Government Certificate, Becomes AUATON
    Nigerian E-hailing Drivers Union Gets Government…
  • Uber's Beats Estimate For Revenue, Shares Soar By…
  • 47c7908f410a4c7b8f3a344eff4058f1_XL
    Uber Tanzania Resumes Operations As LATRA Policy…
  • ios15-iphone-12-pro-settings-apple-id-password-security-account-recovery-add-recovery-contact
    Bolt Debut a Regional Ride-Hailing Hub in Nairobi.
  • nopearide
    Kenya's First EV Taxi Service NopeaRide Shuts Down
  • Uber Launches UK Flight Ticket Bookings
    Uber Launches UK Flight Ticket Bookings

Discover more from TechBooky

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Tags: african techappLagosnigeriauber
Paul Balo

Paul Balo

Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

Select Category

    Receive top tech news directly in your inbox

    subscription from
    Loading

    Freshly Squeezed

    • Vietnam Will Soon block Telegram, App Owners are Surprised May 24, 2025
    • Widespread Downtime Reported By X Users May 24, 2025
    • MongoDB Enters Africa Through Nigeria Targeting $100B Digital Market May 24, 2025
    • Meta Quest’s Headgear Will Soon Support 3D Instagram Images May 24, 2025
    • Mozilla To Shut Down Pocket To Concentrate On Firefox May 24, 2025
    • OpenAI Upgrades Operator Agent’s AI Model May 24, 2025

    Browse Archives

    May 2025
    MTWTFSS
     1234
    567891011
    12131415161718
    19202122232425
    262728293031 
    « Apr    

    Quick Links

    • About TechBooky
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact us
    • Submit Article
    • Privacy Policy
    • Login

    © 2021 Design By Tech Booky Elite

    Generic selectors
    Exact matches only
    Search in title
    Search in content
    Post Type Selectors
    • African
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Gadgets
    • Metaverse
    • Tips
    • About TechBooky
    • Advertise Here
    • Submit Article
    • Contact us

    © 2021 Design By Tech Booky Elite

    Discover more from TechBooky

    Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

    Continue reading

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok