MANILA – Uber has entered a multi-year partnership with local telco giant PLDT to provide free in-car WiFi and exclusive perks in the Philippines with Smart Communication and digital marketing arm Voyager Innovations.
To be rolled out over the coming weeks, Mike Brown, Uber’s regional general manager for SEA, Australia and New Zealand, confirmed that it’s the first time that the ride-sharing service will offer WiFi in their cars in the region
Asked on why launch it first in the Philippines, Brown shared with adobo that the opportunity was a serendipitous encounter.
“We choose the Philippines first because the chance to set it up here came. At that time, we were both seeking to add more value to our respective brands. Smart saw and believed what we were doing.”
Uber passengers can avail of the free WiFi starting this Tuesday but will initially be only available in select Uber Black vehicles, Uber’s luxury private black car service. The rest of the Uber whole fleet is scheduled to follow suite over the next months.
Smart is also set to introduce special offers ranging from discounts and on-demand experiences to passengers hooked on the network. In addition, Uber drivers will also be offered exclusive voice and data packages, bundles and add-ons.
The partnership will open Uber to a potential market of over 70 million people, which is the combined user base of Smart and its sister mobile unit Sun Cellular as of end-June 2015.
On the other end, Eric Alberto, executive vice president of PLDT, says that the partnership is part of gradual but radical steps they are taking to transform the telco into “a premier digital provider in the Philippines ”
He shared PLDT’s latest foray into e-commerce called Tack This!, a cloud-based tool that can create an online store in minutes. Its parent company, Singapore-based Paywhere, was acquired by PLDT for $5 million last August.
Managed under Voyager, TackThis! will be tasked to design a dedicated Uber online store to offer Smart SIM cards, special handsets and tablets.
To drum up attention, Smart will be giving away two free Uber rides worth P300 each for first time Uber users. The offer, however, is only available in Metro Manila from now until September 30, 2015. Subscribers need to visit www.smart.com.ph/uber and register their Smart number to receive a promo code that they can input on the Uber app before requesting a ride.
Uber overcame one of its biggest legal hurdles in the Philippines last May after Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) legalized app-based public transport services – the first country in the world to develop nationwide ride-hailing regulations.
