KUCHING: Kuching has a healthy e-hailing market as it currently has a balanced demand and supply of driver-partners and riders, Uber observed.
According to Uber’s head of communications for Southeast Asia Leigh Wong during a media briefing yesterday, based on the average estimated time of arrival (ETA), people in Kuching do not need to wait longer than seven minutes to get a ride.
“Eighty per cent of our trips, people wait less than 10 minutes. For the most part, we feel that we have enough supply and enough demand here in Kuching and that’s a healthy market for us,” he said.
As for the tourism industry, Wong observed that Uber has been complementary for the tourism industry here.
Riders from 176 cities in 49 countries have used Uber in Kuching in the last month. Since Uber’s launch here back in September 2016, riders from 291 cities in 71 countries have used Uber in Kuching.
On driver partners in Kuching, Uber revealed that people look at flexible earning opportunities. Sixty per cent of driver-partners in Kuching drive less than 10 hours a week.
With driver-partners numbering in the thousands here, the record holder in Kuching currently has conducted about 5,600 trips.
“We are also very fortunate to see a very good ratio of female driver-partners,” he noted. “About 15 per cent of them are female driver-partners in Kuching, which means at least 700 women feel that it is safe to drive in Kuching with Uber.”
Meanwhile, the most number of trips recorded by a rider in Kuching is more than 1,000. There are currently tens of thousands of active riders in Kuching.
Other statistics indicated that 75 per cent of riders in Kuching tend to pay in cash while 25 per cent paid via non-cash methods, and this includes all promo spending.
Uber also found that the top five locations ‘Ubered’ to in Kuching are Vivacity Megamall, Kuching International Airport, tHe Spring Shopping Mall, Plaza Merdeka and Swinburne University of Technology.
Additionally, Kuching’s riders were found to typically ride in the late afternoon and evening on Fridays and Saturdays. The most popular time to take an Uber is Saturday late afternoon.
“We are very glad to see how the Kuching market is growing, it’s a steadily growing market for us,” Wong enthused. “We launched here just over a year ago and we are making good progress.”
“As in every market we are in, we always want to see how we can make things better, grow the business and it’s the same for us in Kuching. Kuching is an important market for us and we are glad to be here.”
Uber has also been available in Miri since March 2017. Uber currently operates in 15 cities – Alor Setar, Batu Pahat, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Langkawi, Melaka, Miri, Penang, Sandakan and Seremban.