Uber extends cash payments to four more cities
Online cab hailing service Uber has extended cash payments to four more cities in India. Users can now pay with hard money in the cities of Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kochi. Uber earlier this year had begun testing cash payments in Hyderabad. Currently, India and Kenya are the only countries where the company accepts cash payments. Globally, Uber mostly accepts payments via credit card.
Earlier in April, Uber introduced cash-based auto services in Delhi called uberAUTO. Hired autos will ply at government approved metered fare and will have to be paid for in cash at the end of the ride. To use the service, users need to login on the platform and book an auto like a regular taxi. No booking charges are levied by Uber and users don’t need to have any balance in their Patym wallets either.
Earlier this month, Uber also resumed payments via credit cards in India after nine months. Uber had stopped payments via credit cards after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised concerns over two factor authentication and violation of foreign exchange laws in India. Earlier in November 2014, Uber had tied up with Paytm to enable users make use of Paytm’s prepaid wallet to pay for their tax rides. This tie-up was necessitated after RBI issued a directive that Card Not Present (CNP) transactions for purchases of goods and services in India had to be processed through Indian banks and payments needed to be made in Rupees in August this year.
1mg starts diagnostic tests service
Online pharmacy marketplace 1mg (formerly HealthKartPlus) has launched diagnostic test booking service. The service is available on 1mg’s mobile application and on a separate website. Users can book an appointment on the app or the website following which a lab technician will reach their homes at a preferred time for free sample collection. In addition, will also be able to receive their reports in a digital format online, besides getting the hard copy as well.
Currently, the service has tied up with labs like Metropolis, Oncquest, Thyrocare, Molecure, Wellness Pathcare among others and plans to add more leading labs in the coming weeks. The service is currently available in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Pune, Mumbai and Thane.
Earlier this month, the company also launched a doctor discovery and appointment booking Android app called Doctors by 1mg. The app currently lists about 15,000 doctors in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad, across 230 specialties and 10,000 clinics. In June, 1 mg acquired the alternate medicine website Homeobuy for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, Homeobuy has been rebranded to 1mgAyush and will sell homeopathic and ayurvedic medicines to customers in New Delhi.
Housing.com ties up with RE/MAX India for last mile services
Online real estate portal Housing.com has partnered with brokerage network RE/MAX India to extend its verified property listing and advertising to property consulting and last-mile services, reports TechCircle. The arrangement would allow both Housing and RE/MAX to share listings with each other. RE/MAX has 100 franchises across over 30 cities and the report added that this will not be an exclusive tie-up.
In May, Housing.com acquired the Delhi-based real estate analytics portal Realty Business Intelligence. Realty BI provides information regarding the real estate sector, including real estate trends and risk management tools. It claims to specialize in project approval and project monitoring services, and developing project rating models and market intelligence reports.
Housing.com had acquired realty-focused online community Indian Real Estate Forum (IREF) for Rs 8 crore, in March this year. At the time, the forum had about 1.5 lakh members, though it wasn’t clear how many of them were active users. IREF was expected to function as an independent entity, with Housing co-founder Ravish Naresh heading it. The company had plans of introducing an “Ask Me Anything” section in the forum that would allow prospective home buyers to post questions regarding projects, brokers and builders and seek answers from IREF members.
