India
General Manager, Rides, India — Uber, 2016 to 2018, based in Bangalore. India was the one market Uber entered second, behind an established local incumbent, and had to out-execute it from there.
What the job actually was
Uber launched in India behind Ola. That inverts the usual playbook: instead of defining a category, you are taking share from a company that already has the drivers, the riders and the local knowledge. Between 2016 and 2018 the Rides business went from $55M to more than $400M in annual run rate, market share moved from roughly 15% to roughly 50%, and the business broke even along the way.
The unlock was the supply side. He took an Indian driver’s licence himself and drove roughly two hours every Sunday, and did home visits with drivers, to understand what the job was really like rather than reading about it in a dashboard. The trust and safety work that followed came directly out of that: the in-app Blue Safety Hub, trip-sharing with family, and proactive check-in calls when a driver took a wrong turn or stopped for too long.
On the demand side, pricing, marketing and promotion changes quadrupled user frequency. As a member of the India leadership team he also reorganised an organisation of more than 2,500 people.
Greenlight, Bangalore
In September 2017 Uber opened its largest Greenlight driver-support centre in India, on Wind Tunnel Road in Bangalore — 15,000 square feet, serving roughly 4,000 driver-partners a week. It was the physical version of the same argument: drivers are the product, and they need somewhere to go when something goes wrong.
“We are always working towards improving the experience of driving on Uber. We understand how important it is to have local Uber staff available when driver partners need help.”
Christian Freese, General Manager, Uber South India — Dataquest India, 11 September 2017
2017, Bangalore
In early 2017 a period of unrest stopped many Bangalore drivers from working. He addressed driver-partners directly on Uber’s India blog, calling for the authorities to restore safety and arguing that the right to protest did not cancel out a driver’s ability to earn.
“The safety of drivers and riders is our top priority, and we’re doing everything we can to address the situation.”
Christian Freese — Uber India blog, 1 March 2017
On the record
- Uber on Bangalore Bylined statement to Bangalore driver-partners during the 2017 unrest.
- Uber launches its biggest greenlight centre in Bengaluru Coverage of the largest Uber driver-support centre in India.
- Uber launches Greenlight Center in Bangalore Quotes him on why local, in-person driver support mattered.