TODAY

Present state of things regarding Oway services
We started Oway in 2012. Initially, we took up the job of Myanmar’s airline booking, setting up an online platform. Our advantage is that air ticket can be made available to foreigners with credit cards. Now we’ve expanded to car rental service for hotels and airports _ a combination of travel business and logistics business. And over a year ago, we launched Oway Ride product with a mobile-based application that enables you to order taxis in the nearest area.

Uber and Grab, the world’s rival companies in this field, have now got into Myanmar market. Does it mean a cause for concern for you? Have you prepared yourself for that eventuality?
Of course we’re concerned about that, because they are two big companies. So we’re trying to improve customer care, and we’re trying to know how to do it differently in our own way. We believe now is a critical time for us.

How to acquire customer loyalty?
Regarding customer loyalty, we should say our meter-based taxi fares are highly competitive. Another thing is, we take almost care to provide our partners with the support they need _ for example, with programmes for their better livelihood, and with training programmes to that end. We have the aim of helping make them independent entrepreneurs. We have a programme code-named ” Welcome 2000 ” that saves you two thousand kyats. We have other programmes in mind such as rental by month and delivery service. This way, we believe, we can complete with foreign companies fairly well. We invite any advice for our better performance.

Some taxi drivers have joined up with Uber and Grab as well as with Oway. Could there be any conflict as a result, what do you have in mind to do in this situation?
We’re thinking up regulations to deal with that with a view to instilling in our drivers a sense of commitment to their jobs. We’ve given them a lot of incentive as well as a lot of training. We will see that they that they abide by the obligations.

Now we are seeing promotion drives among the taxi application compaines. Does it mean that those with deep pockets have a better chance for long-term survival.
For a business model to be sustainable regulations as well as capital raising are important.
We attach greater importance to customer loyalty and patronage, we are trying to achieve that, and we’ve achieved to some extent already.

As regards competitions…
Foreign companies, as far as we know, take 25% charge on every single route. Our Oway Ride takes just about 10%_ something we consider reasonable it terms of our service, training and promoting efforts. It all depends on which service, foreign or local, users prefer.

Concerning market share
Our country’s taxi market has local as well as foreign companies. Many players on the car rental market, too. There is a very fierce competition.

It is difficult to say concerning Oway Ride, because Yangon has about seventy thousand taxis, so our market share at present is small. By travel booking volume, however, we are on the top 5 list.