Earlier this month, we told you about ONDC which is Indian government’s attempt at what it calls “democratizing” the e-commerce space in the country which is dominated by a few major players like Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart right now. The government wants even the small sellers to enjoy the benefits of e-commerce without being bulldozed by the big companies who can easily promote their own products on the top of their own e-commerce platforms which is happening to an extent right now. With the help of ONDC, Indian Government wants everyone to open an e-commerce store of their own with zero-commissions.
While the ONDC was aimed at the e-commerce industry, the Indian Government is opening up the platform for a major sector which is mobility and have already onboarded a major player on their platform. This player is Namma Yatri from Bengaluru which is an on-demand auto rickshaw booking app that is already operational in the tech hub of India. The aim of Namma Yatri is to undercut major players like Ola and Uber on pricing and make their mark in the industry. Having said that, playing on the price without any moat of their own is definitely a tight rope to walk on.
ONDC requires its partners to have KYC (know your customer) verification done for safety concerns but it can be an additional obstacle that other players are eliminating right now. Government of India’s Anurag Jain said in a statement, “To make transportation convenient and affordable in our growing cities, it is important to provide a seamless experience to users. Open systems like ONDC enable the collaboration and interoperability needed to make it happen,”
It looks like ONDC will also need to take the same approach as UPI to grow itself. At first, UPI was not accepted by everyone and it needed a player like Flipkart’s PhonePe to become the market leader and grow the industry and the technology forward. ONDC’s chief also claims that ONDC does not need major players on its platform as small players can also make a mark of their own in the sector.
