Ola Money, online cab aggregator Ola’s in app wallet for payments, can now be used to pay for other companies like Oyo Rooms, Lenskart and Saavn among others across India. Ola Money users will also be offered promotional cashbacks and discounts from merchants in the initial roll out integration. Note that in March, Ola told MediaNama that its in-app wallet Ola Money was a closed system payment instrument. Closed system payment instruments do not permit cash withdrawal or redemption. As such, these instruments cannot facilitate payments and settlement for third-party services. However, Ola told MediaNama that it has tied up with ZipCash for its wallet services. ZipCash got its semi closed payments instrument licence from the Reserve Bank of India in 2009. ZipCash had previously introduced a mobile payment service called M-Wallet which offered peer-to-peer money transfer on any mobile of any operator across India, in partnership with Loop Mobile. Ola claims to have 20 million customers on its platform and claims to be the among the top 3 mobile wallets in India by transaction volume. Ola also claims that its wallet sees ‘high frequency usage and recharge’. It claims that with an average wallet balance of Rs 1,000, Ola Money is the most preferred payment option across Ola’s transport services of cabs, autos, kaali peeli taxis, Ola Cafe (food delivery) and Ola Store (grocery delivery). It currently claims to have over 200,000 vehicles (including cabs, autorickshaws and kaali peeli taxis) on its platform. Last month, appointed Sundeep Sahni as the VP of new initiatives. Ola Select rewards program Last week, the company launched a rewards-like program called ‘Ola Select’ for its frequent customers who could use free WiFi, no-cost upgrades, discounts and ‘exclusive benefits’ from partners Myntra, Snapdeal and Cleartrip. Ola claimed that it was inviting users to the Select program based on their usage behavior and frequency, ‘among other parameters’. Ola goes app only Last month, the online cab aggregator stated that it was going app only from this month across its 100 cities of operation. Ola used to let users book cabs by calling 3355-3355 before this move, which will now be used for call centre operations (customer support). The company also updated the app to better support content loading on 2G networks, it said in a statement. The app would reportedly allow users to save on their data usage and work even in areas of poor connectivity. Ola-TFS integration In late June, Ola started integrating TaxiForSure’s (TFS) hatchback cars into Ola’s own booking app. The integration was visible only to Delhi and Mumbai users for starters and was to be rolled out to other cities in phases over the next few weeks. The TaxiForSure app would continue to operate with all categories. TFS selective shutdown Earlier this month, TaxiForSure said that it was shutting down its independent brand in 22 cities and migrating to Ola. The company said that it was transferring all TFS credits to the user’s bank account and all the promotional credits would be migrated to Ola Money. Bus aggregation A month, we reported that Ola was allegedly planning to start a shuttle bus service on its platform, which would be aggregated from tourist and chartered buses. The bus service would be available for urban commuters and was set for launch by September or October. Also read: Ola’s Anand Subramanian on TFS integration, user expectations, smaller city expansions & more Our Ola coverage here Image Credit: Flickr user Swire
Ola, India"s largest cab-hailing service, said yesterday that Ola Money, a personal e-wallet, can now be used to pay for services on other e-commerce platforms as well as for Ola rides (it was previously closed and could only be used to pay for Ola services). The company also announced today that it will soon launch an app called Ola Cash which allows users to make payments using their mobile phones or debit cards at any of the company's more than 100 stores across