Uber Officially Launches in Jakarta Today

Smartphone-based private car hire service Uber is officially launching in Jakarta today. The company has actually been in operating in the city since early June, giving residents a taste of what the company is offering. Over the past two months it’s been working on building up its inventory of cars and drivers through partnerships with car rental companies and gauging the market demand, pattern, not to mention reception in Indonesia’s capital. For the time being, the service is available in very limited capacity as pick ups are concentrated around the Sudirman CBD area.

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Why is There a Lack of Taxi Apps in Indonesia?

The proliferation of taxi apps and private car hire services around the world is inevitable with companies such as Uber, Lyft, Hailo, EasyTaxi, GetTaxi, and myTaxi leading the charge. With these apps making their ways into cities across the world, Indonesia is one of the countries which have yet to see serious play by these apps and services.

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Aplikasi Mobile BlueBird Group Kini Sediakan Fasilitas Booking yang Lebih Baik

Sekitar seminggu yang lalu, BlueBird Group merilis versi baru aplikasi mobile yang memberikan berbagai fitur baru untuk membuat proses pemesanan taksi menjadi lebih nyaman. Saat itu pembaruan dilakukan untuk aplikasi BlackBerry dan Android, sedangkan untuk iOS baru dirilis hari Selasa. Aplikasi ini sekarang memungkinkan Anda untuk menjadwalkan pemesanan taksi, menelepon supir, serta untuk mengetahui apakah ada gangguan pada layanan dan menguhubungkan langsung pada akun Twitter resmi mereka. Di versi baru ini ada juga sedikit perubahan antarmuka.

Beberapa bulan yang lalu kami mengulas aplikasi ini, yang ketika itu masih memiliki fitur inti yang terbatas dan hanya bisa digunakan di Jakarta. Versi baru kali ini memang menyediakan beberapa peningkatan fitur, namun aplikasi ini masih belum dapat digunakan di luar Jakarta walaupun layanan taksinya tersebar di berbagai kota lain.

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BlueBird Group’s Mobile Apps Now Let You Make Advance Taxi Bookings

Over a week ago BlueBird Group released an update to its mobile apps with a collection of new features that makes ordering a cab in Jakarta far more convenient. At that time the BlackBerry and Android apps were updated while the update for the iOS version was released on Tuesday. The app now lets you book a taxi ahead of time, call the driver, and to find out whether there’s a service disruption through a direct link to its own Twitter account. A small number of interface elements had been tweaked as well.

A few months ago we reviewed the app, which at that time was launched with a limited core set of features and works only in Jakarta. While this update brings a number of improvements, the service remains limited to Jakarta even though the company’s taxi service is available across a number of cities in the country.

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Catching a Cab Using an App

Let’s talk about apps. We haven’t reviewed a local mobile app for a while so perhaps this is as good of a time as any. As we know, a while ago BlueBird Group released its taxi-booking apps for BlackBerry, followed by Android and iOS. These apps make up the group’s strategy to cater for its highly mobile clientele and more importantly to take the load off of its already congested telephone booking system.

If you’ve tried booking for cabs in Jakarta over the phone, you’ll know how frustrating it can be in trying to get a call through. If a cab cant be dispatched in five minutes, usually the company will let you know by phone and this repeats every five minutes unless you tell them to forget about it. The app is currently still in beta and works only in Jakarta even though BlueBird Group operates in several different cities in the country. The company says that it will slowly roll out the service over the next year to other cities.

Using an app simplifies this process and makes it almost painless. While the app isn’t what you would call cutting edge or even aesthetically pleasing, it serves the basic purpose of getting a cab quickly.

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