Uber is struggling due to COVID19 – now it wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is eager to shift engineering innovation to India as it will be cheaper for the company, said a report by The Information.
• Globally, Uber lost $2.9 billion in the first three months of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Khosrowshahi had earlier said that the impact of COVID-19 would be drastic for the company.

Ride hailing giant Uber has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic across the world. Globally, Uber lost $2.9 billion in the first three months of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And now, in a step to cut costs by shifting its engineering jobs to India, said a report by The Information. According to the report, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is eager to shift engineering innovation to India as it will be cheaper for the company.

Uber India didn’t comment on the same.

Khosrowshahi had earlier said that the impact of COVID-19 would be drastic for the company.

"I won't sugarcoat it. COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on rides, with the business down globally around 80% in April,” he said during the conference call for its earnings.

Earlier, as a part of its massive global layoff of 6,700 employees, Uber India had laid off 600 employees in India. “The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber IndiaSA with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month,” Pradeep Parameswaran, President, Uber India and South Asia had said during the layoffs in May 2020.

However, Uber’s wish to shift its engineering to India is not something new. During his visit to India in 2019, Khosrowshahi had said that India is going to be a big source of innovation for them. “One example is the Uber Lite app, was designed and built in India and moved to over 30 countries around the world,” he had said.

Manik Gupta who was then the Chief Product Officer of Uber had said that Uber is proud of the engineering and product talent based out of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. “We have a goal to double the headcount in these offices and have 1,000 people to build innovative products out of India,” he had said.

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