Port Elizabeth is the latest addition to a list of South African cities that will be able to use internet ride-sharing service Uber.
The city joins other metropolitans such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town in having the service, and is the 9th South African city Uber has expanded to.
Uber cited the city’s 1.1 million population size as fertile ground for the company’s first UberX option tests; UberX is the more cost-effective option available to consumers, which employs more affordable vehicles such as the Toyota Corolla.
Samantha Allenberg, the head of Uber‘s communications in Africa, said in an interview with Fin24 that “œThe reason we say testing is obviously because we‘re still in the process of creating the demand and the supply…“œSo, ETAs (estimated times of arrival) might be a bit longer in the initial period but as we start to build the product, so ETAs will become more reliable… But this is a launch; it‘s just for the festive season we call it testing so that people know that ETAs won‘t be as good as they are in other cities,“ said Allenberg.
Uber’s expansion comes after Alon Lits’ address at AfricaCom earlier this year, which saw the General Manager highlight some of the company’s achievements.
Lits’ address, entitled ‘Build it and they will come’, emphasized Uber’s expansion into South Africa.
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