Market Analysis Of Uber In Australia – SWOT And PESTEL Analysis

1.1 Market dynamics analysis

Uber has been tagged as a highly capitalised private organisation which has full support of venture capitalists. Uber has been implementing a very aggressive strategy to develop business. Millions of australians have availed services from uber and that is thanks to networking effects which refers to the ability of an individual to use a service and recommend the same to people in their social networks (Newcomer, 2015). Uber has become a valued entity in Australia due to efficient, easy and economic services like Uber X which is suitable for booking private rides for 4 persons at maximum at affordable price.. The services are supported by efficient and extensive consumer support network.

The Australian market is spoilt for choice in context of personal transport options. Uber has been operating in australia since 2015. Over the time company had competition with the local taxi aggregators. However, with increasing frequency of similar companies, Uber now faces stiff competition from companies like Shofer, GoCatch, taxify, Shebah, India based Ola cabs and China based DiDi (Scheiber, 2017). This has led to reduce pricing and consequently lower fares for the customers. However, the profitability of the company is threatened by the ease of penetrate market in Australia due the the lower entry cost which can attained after developing an app and the necessary IT infrastructures. The competitive advantage of Uber is threatened.

Uber has been a pioneer in providing on demand consumer accessible rides by providing clear navigation as well as features like cashless payment for easing the way people commute. They have also recently got involved in the food delivery business where a consumer can order food from their favourite joints and the order will be delivered to the customers doorstep. They also look forward to cash in on the customer loyalty (Hirson, 2015). Uber has also launched shipping and transportation service like the Uber Freight which utilises a separate mobile application that helps in matching the shippers with the carriers which is supported by upfront pricing schemes. In order to manage transportation needs in a business, Uber for Business is another service which helps to easily manage the transportation needs of the company aided by automated expensing, billing and reporting.

To be honest uber caters to a lot of buyer personas which comprises almost every type of consumer (Feeney & companies Uber, 2015). One of the targeted personas are individuals aged 18 years and above who like to travel to social events, concerts and game events. Uber also tries to target customers who travel for business purposes who can use Uber as an alternative to taking public transport. Uber also tries to comply with chauffeur drives for 21 years and above people who frequent to clubs and bars. The company also makes an attempt to reduce occurence of underaged drivers by providing transportation options to those who do not have a driver’s licence or are under judicial obligations due to some demeanor.

Strengths Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Weaknesses
l Brand with recognition l High service standards l Huge fleet of cars l Low operational costs l Little competition l High valuation of the company	l Business idea can be easily imitated l Ethically questionable relation of the company and the drivers l Consumer and company have no bonding l Unpredictable business model l Privacy concerns
Opportunities	Threats
l High waiting time and pricing of traditional taxis l Can exploit bigger markets like India l Can provide services in suburban areas l Extra services can add to the existing revenue model.	l Unsatisfied drivers due to low profit margin l Problem with local authorities l Increasing competition l Increasing markets and drivers can result in more scandals and frauds.

Table 1: SWOT analysis

(Source: Dudley, Banister & Schwanen, 2017)

Political	The regulation pertaining to the sharing of economy by Uber is hotly debated topic. The company’s rise has been disruptive to the business conducted by traditional taxi services. Hence political factors can impact Uber’s operations in Australia.
Economic	Uber is not only affected by the economic aspects but is also known to affect the economy itself. They create job opportunities and has reduced the price of cab services for the customers. Economy has a moderate impact on Uber.
Social	It is necessary for the company to have a sociable as well as respectable image. CUstomer service is necessary to maintain consumer base. However, the company is also liable to lawsuits ranging from competition, drivers and human resources
Technological	Uber makes use of technology very efficiently as it has been able to develop a platform for connecting the drivers nd the passengers.
Environmental	Uber has been testing electric vehicles for green environment and sustainability.
Legal	Uber’s success is a nightmare for the legal authorities as they are unsure if the traditional laws are applicable to the workings of the company. Hence, the legal aspects deeply impact the way the company is operated/

1.2 Competition

Table 2: PESTEL analysis

(Source: Greenblatt, 2016)

The purpose of the current research is to measure the capability of Uber to remain profitable in the current Australian market. The research will also help to shed light on issues that need to be dealt with by the company so as it does not lead to declining profits (Boyle & Peterson, 2015). The consumers can autonomously choose their responses which will make the current project an unbiased study for assessing the quality of the performance of the company as well as its services and the brand image that exists in the market.

Uber is currently facing very stiff competition in the Australian transportation market. Their organisational activities and ethics have been highly criticised a few times. It is hence necessary for the company to gain the necessary customer insight that will help the company to implement strategies that can strengthen the competitive advantage of the company as well as help in improving the brand image and public relation status of the company in the market (McRostie & Regan, 2017).

The research will have significant impact on the functions and operations of Uber. The customer insight that will be interpreted after collating the project data can be used by the company to draw up a more suitable framework that addresses these issues. The level of customer satisfaction and appropriateness can be also evaluated using the research project (Harris, 2015). On basis of these interpretations, the company can take risk of modifying their current range of services by adding new services or removing redundant ones to maximise profitability and growth. Understandably the research project may also shed some light where the company needs to invest.

One of the most common research barrier is the lack of organisational support which means insufficient incentives, inadequate funds, impracticality of research results, lacking management and inequality in adoption as well as implementation of the project. The other research barrier is lack of access to other similar research, non cooperation among the research members, lack of services for resource mining and finally improper consultation with assessors. Along with this another research barrier that is to be kept in mind is to make sure that each and every thread of information is not plagiarized and the data collected needs to be safeguarded under the Right to Privacy Act and Data Act (Clear, 2017).

The business objective of Uber is to make sure that the there is a significant increase in the overall profit made by the company by providing an inexpensive, convenient as well as safe cab services in which riders can request to be picked up or dropped off at a location by the Uber drivers. The company has set a measurable scale of how much it needs to earn in order to significantly increase their valuation (Millar, 2017). Another major objective of the company is to use their wide variety of services supported by an infinite fleet of vehicles and widely available chauffeurs is to establish itself as the leader in terms of market position in the category of transportation services.

1.3 Business activities undertaken

The objective of the current research project is very simple. The research is being undertaken to understand the customer insight. This is necessary as the research will help to enhance the nature of relationship between the company and their customers (WIlson, 2016). This research will also help the company to make decisions pertaining to launch as well as evaluation of products as well as services. The research is also designed to understand the concept of brand awareness and image in context of Uber.

The current research will be focused mainly on the customers availing the services. As they experience the quality of services the first hand it can be safely assumed that this group is very specific for achieving the research objective as well as business objective (Smith & McCormick, 2019).

A sample size of 57 has been chosen for conducting the current research.

The data collection methods that will be undertaken in the research is based on the type of data to be collected. For collecting quantitative data for the current project data analysis the most preferable mode of data collection is by conducting survey or interviews. This helps in testing the theory based hypothesis which helps in estimating the size of a phenomenon of particular interest (Elsey, 2017). The researcher is also allowed to collect participant information to statistically influence the outcome or the variable. For the current research the most appropriate mode to collect data is to conduct web based questionnaires as it is quicker and requires less details. However, this type of questionnaire is only for people who have internet access using smartphones.

Out of the various research designs, the current research has been conducted by following descriptive design as it makes use of surveys. However there are certain limitations to descriptive research design. The major limitation is confidentiality as research questions may be biased to receive answers that supports the researchers. In descriptive research, participants can change the way they act if they know someone is observing them which is known as observer’s paradox (Ross, 2015). Since the questions are predetermined as well as prescriptive, the study may contain errors as the researcher has the freedom to choose results which conforms to the hypothesis. This type of research is unreliable and unscientific.

The most used research tool today perhaps is internet. It is an inexhaustible and invaluable resource available for mining information. Since internet has millions of sites dispersing information which is regularly updated, it is the best tool available for conducting the research. The internet also has digital libraries and journals which can be accessed from any location worldwide (Chu, 2015). However, the huge volume of information available makes it difficult to classify and sieve the required information. Physical libraries, books, magazines and newspapers are also very important tools that provide the much needed information while conducting a research. Statistical tools is important for data analysis and hence it makes statistics as well as data analysis as irreplaceable tools for conducting a research.

The project will be reported by using a word report and  supported by a power point presentation. This type of reporting techniques have been identified because this is a more of a quantitative research rather than a qualitative research. The factual interpretations after data analysis requires preparing word report and presented using a presentation rather than conducting workshops.

Main activities and stages	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Selection of the topic	?
Collection of data	?
Planning the proper layout		?	?
Reviewing literature			?
Development of research plan			?
Selecting research technique			?	?	?
Gathering Primary data				?	?
Data analysis					?	?
Interpretation of findings						?
Conclusion preparation						?
Project rough overdraft							?
Final submission							?

	Requested funds
Materials and supplies	$100
Publication costs	$100
Consultant services	$50
Computer related services	$25
Rental costs	$50
Travel (if necessary)	$150
TOTAL	$475

1.4 Targeted market

It is necessary to keep certain considerations in mind in context to data management while conducting a research like data storage, data access and mode of access. The hard copies such as interviews need to be safely locked in a cabinet which can be accessed by few agreed core research team members. The soft copies which include computer files containing personal or identifiable data need to be encrypted or simply, password protected as these files fall under the Data Protection Act terms (Jacquet, 2018). The file can be shared among agreed members and it would be advisable to confirm the idea with the in-house Data Protection officer to identify protocols and guidelines that may be mandatory. Data should be accessible to only the research team members and nobody else. It is necessary to make the different data files purposely linkable  only after confirmation from the authorised researcher.

The research data obtained from the surveys will be first arranged in tabular format and statistically observed on basis of which inferences will be drawn (Glöss, McGregor & Brown, 2016).

All the research activities will be carried out in accordance to the accepted research standards. It is also necessary to refrain from taking research activities for which the researchers do not possess sufficient skills without having a collaboration with some knowledgeable source. It is also necessary to ensure data accuracy in data collection (Mulholland, 2016). Only correct figures are allowed to be reported. In case of errors, it is advisable to take rectifying steps and making uneccsary, exaggerated or misleading statements. The researchers also need to pledge against plagiarism and it is necessary to clearly cite references and acknowledgements.

Q1. Have you ever ridden in an Uber vehicle as a customer? (If not, you do not qualify to participate in this survey).

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Yes	49	86%	57
NO	8	14%	57

Q2. Which other ride-sharing company have you used other than Uber?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Taxify	5	10%	49
OLA	16	33%	49
DiDi	9	18%	49
Muve	9	18%	49
Others	10	21%	49

Q3. Generally, I feel that I am satisfied with Uber’s policy of choosing drivers at random.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	8	16%	49
Agree	13	27%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	9	18%	49
Disagree	11	23%	49
Highly disagree	8	16%	49

Q4. The decision to choose drivers at random, both Uber and I have equal influence.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	5	10%	49
Agree	11	23%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	20	41%	49
Disagree	7	14%	49
Highly disagree	6	12%	49

Q5. My relationship to Uber is not one-sided; we have a two-way relationship

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	6	12%	49
Agree	12	24%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	8	16%	49
Disagree	21	43%	49
Highly disagree	2	5%	49

Q6. I trust Uber as an organization.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	10	21%	49
Agree	15	31%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	9	18%	49
Disagree	11	23%	49
Highly disagree	4	7%	49

Q7. Uber treats me fairly and justly, compared to other ride-sharing companies.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	12	24%	49
Agree	19	39%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	4	7%	49
Disagree	9	18%	49
Highly disagree	5	12%	49

Q8. Uber keeps its promises with all the promotions and discounts.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	8	16%	49
Agree	2	5%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	32	67%	49
Disagree	4	7%	49
Highly disagree	2	5%	49

Q9. Uber meets my needs as a customer.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	12	24%	49
Agree	17	35%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	5	12%	49
Disagree	12	24%	49
Highly disagree	3	5%	49

Q10. My relationship with Uber is good.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	7	14%	49
Agree	11	23%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	19	39%	49
Disagree	2	5%	49
Highly disagree	10	19%	49

Q11. I am generally satisfied with my relationship with Uber.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	5	12%	49
Agree	10	20%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	15	31%	49
Disagree	7	14%	49
Highly disagree	12	23%	49

Q12. I wish to keep a long-lasting relationship as a customer with Uber.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	17	36%	49
Agree	8	16%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	10	19%	49
Disagree	12	23%	49
Highly disagree	2	5%	49

Q13. I wish I had never started a relationship with Uber.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	2	5%	49
Agree	4	7%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	13	26%	49
Disagree	19	39%	49
Highly disagree	11	23%	49

Q14. Uber is my preferred method of transportation.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	3	6%	49
Agree	7	14%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	13	26%	49
Disagree	17	36%	49
Highly disagree	9	18%	49

Q15. I feel safe as a customer riding with Uber.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	16	35%	49
Agree	10	19%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	7	14%	49
Disagree	13	26%	49
Highly disagree	3	6%	49

Q16. Uber safety policies has done an adequate job of keeping customers safe in Uber vehicles.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	5	10%	49
Agree	15	31%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	2	5%	49
Disagree	18	38%	49
Highly disagree	9	16%	49

Q17. I am willing to ride with Uber in the future.

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Highly agree	7	15%	49
Agree	13	28%	49
Neither agree nor disagree	19	39%	49
Disagree	5	10%	49
Highly disagree	4	8%	49

Q18. What is your age?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
18-24	11	23%	49
25-34	19	39%	49
35-44	13	27%	49
45-54	2	4%	49
55-64	3	5%	49
65 and above	1	2%	49

Q19. What is your gender?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Male	15	31%	49
Female	29	59%	49
Prefer not to say	2	4%	49
Others	3	6%	49

Q20. Which race/ethnicity best describes you? (Please choose only one.)

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
American Indian or Alaskan Native	7	14%	49
Asian/Pacific islander	15	31%	49
Black or African American	11	22%	49
Hispanic	6	13%	49
White/Caucasian	9	18%	49
Others	1	2%	49

Q21. Do you live in a suburb?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Yes	28	57%	49
No	14	29%	49
Prefer not to disclose	7	14%	49

1.5 Market factors

Q22. Do you own a drivable automobile?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Yes	20	41%	49
No	29	59%	49

Q23. Which factor is most important to you when choosing a form of transportation?

Response	Response frequency	Response percentage	Total no. of respondents
Safety	16	32%	49
Price (affordability)	6	13%	49
Ease of use (convenience)	18	37%	49
Others	9	18%	49

The data that was collected by survey can be effectively analysed to understand Uber’s status in the Australian market. It can be observed that most of the people know of uber and availed cab services. Ola has become a key competitor in the market which should make Uber worried. The consumers feel that their preferences are being met by the company and enjoy certain amount of influence. However, the consumers do not consider their relation with uber to be two way. The company enjoys a lot of consumer loyalty as the consumer feel that they are treated   fairly. The company meets consumer demand and maintains good relationship with consumers. The company has become a reliable mode of transport in the Australian market.

References

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