Tech Telecom

The taxi rental service Ola has announced that its connected-car platform Ola Play will be available to all consumers under Prime category (those customers who avail sedan cars). Ola Play was originally launched in November 2016 and was limited to Select customers (the subscription-based customers). According to Ola, the introduction of Ola Play has increased the Select subscriptions up to 300%.

“With Ola Play, our aim is to create an experience that is better than owning a car. In the ridesharing world, both drivers and riders are customers and Play has solved both their needs in a unique manner. The response from our Ola Select customers has been phenomenal and a vast majority of current users requested Prime Play rides for all their travel requirements. While Ola Select customers will continue to be patrons of this platform, we are excited to offer Prime Play for all Ola customers as we continue to transform the ridesharing experience in India,” commented Ankit Jain, Head of Ola Play, Ola.

Ola Play comes with benefits of personalized content such as movies, music, shopping, or the possibility of controlling air-conditioning of the car they travel via a tablet. Ola Play also allows various partners like Apple Music, Sony LIV, AIB, TVF, Audio Compass and Fynd, to build a high-quality interactive experience for the users.

“Sony LIV recognized the changing face of mobility, very early on. Partnering with Ola to offer interesting, curated content for its Select customers was a good starting point. We have received encouraging response from Select users so far, and are extremely excited about reaching out to a larger audience base of all Ola customers, as we start to penetrate deeper into the audience mind space, and entertain and engage them on the move with our unique content offerings,” said Uday Sodhi, EVP and Head – Digital Business, Sony LIV.

Ola Select users can upgrade to Prime at the cost of a Mini, gets priority booking, free Wi-Fi, exclusive offers from Ola and its partners, access to airport lounges across the country, and no peak pricing on Prime & Mini, 24×7.

The main idea behind Ola play is that those riding in an Ola cab will no longer be at the mercy of the driver’s playlist. Instead they can get full control of the in-car experience once a ride begins from their own devices or on screens mounted in the car.

Ola Play is currently available in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. The service will be extended to 50,000+ Ola Prime vehicles by March 2017.