Rapido · Strategy · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

Where Should Rapido Win in Indian Ride Hailing?

Rapido is an Indian ride hailing company trying to build urban mobility around the vehicles people already use every day. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Strategic prioritization
Market insight
Unit economics
Risk management
Product judgment

The situation

You are a PM at Rapido in the early stage of India’s ride hailing market. Uber and Ola are spending heavily to grow car and auto bookings in major metros. Rapido has some early use of two wheeler rides, but leadership has not yet committed to where the company should try to win. The founders want a strategy for the next 18 months. They need to decide which rider segment to serve first, which city types to prioritize, how aggressively to compete on price, and what product investments could create repeat use without copying the subsidy heavy playbook of larger rivals. The decision is hard because the market signals point in different directions. Cars and autos have larger fares and clearer consumer familiarity, but they are crowded categories with expensive acquisition. Two wheelers fit India’s traffic and vehicle mix, but raise safety and regulatory concerns and earn less per trip. Public transport is cheap but fragmented, which may create first mile and last mile openings. Your job is to recommend a defensible wedge for Rapido and explain how the product should support it.

What to produce

A 1 to 2 page strategy memo.

Your answer must

Define the primary target segment, including rider need, trip pattern, and city type.
Compare at least three strategic options for where Rapido could compete, using the same evaluation criteria for each.
Recommend a pricing and supply approach, and explain how it supports repeat usage and workable unit economics.
Propose up to three product bets that would make the chosen wedge more trustworthy, easier to use, or more habit forming.
Name the biggest risks, including regulation and safety, and list the key metrics or experiments you would use in the next two quarters to validate the strategy.

Constraints

Do not assume subsidy budgets comparable to Uber or Ola.
The product must work well on low end Android phones and patchy mobile data.
Any recommendation must account for state level regulatory uncertainty across vehicle categories.
Assume the team can make at most three major product or business model changes in the next 18 months.

Format

Use five sections: market context, options, recommendation, product bets, metrics and risks.

How Rapido actually played it

Looks at how Rapido grew to millions of daily rides by betting on cheap motorcycle taxis in a country with a commute crisis. It covers the low fixed fee model, frugality as an advantage, and the regulatory risk that still hangs over the category.

A category incumbents dismiss as risky can be a large opening
Pricing simplicity and low cost can act as a moat
Regulatory uncertainty belongs in the strategy, not the footnotes

Built from How Rapido Redefined Bike Taxis in India by Sid Arora (JAPM).