Yandex! Thank you for Uber
Hi, Habr! In this article I would like to consider the absorption of Yandex taxi service by Uber from the point of view of a regular user who understands programming a little and does not like messy marketing.
So let's start with nostalgia. Remember the days when Yandex was not involved in any way. What a great time. Convenient application, a bunch of features (for example, drawing up complex routes or planned trips), responsive support service and drivers who are very different from other drivers. The difference lay in the fact that not only taxi drivers, but ordinary drivers came across most often in uber, and they apparently received some training on how to behave and how they should behave. Good times were ...
So, Yandex somehow magically combined with Uber. At this point in time I was in Minsk, and this greatly affected my convenience. To begin with, when we merged, the application changed. More precisely, formally, it was the same, but absolutely everything changed inside. For example, the opportunity to make a route with stops was gone. Also it was not possible to change the landing coordinates after ordering. But it sometimes saved a lot of time for you and the driver. Also, it was not possible to share live coordinates, which is also very convenient. The map began to work with glitches. First, the smoothness of movement disappeared somewhere, and secondly, the coordinates often began to jump. That is, you do not always understand where the car is located. What else? Lost the difference between which side of the street you put a mark. What is left, what's right. I don't know
Also, in the first few days the rating of all drivers uber fell to 4.2. Yandex did not transfer ratings, but moved the number of trips. Imagine the shock of drivers, who have several thousand trips and a good rating. “Fixed” their mistake with a huge crutch. Rating all drivers raised to 5 (facepalm).
By the way, did I say that the application for drivers also deteriorated? Every driver, whoever I asked about their new application, at least swore, trying to describe the new UX.
An interesting fact, when I flew to Kiev for several days, the same application was rebuilt into the old Uberovsky interface and worked very well.
Well, okay, I thought, the guys from Yandex just took up the product, deadlines, everything will probably be fixed in the near future. I waited a long time, a month, two, three, five, and here I came across an advertisement in a Facebook feed: Download the Uber BY application and get a 40% discount on all trips.
An interesting marketing ploy, isn't it? All the same, a weighty discount, but no, thank you, I do not want. All the convenience of Uber lies precisely in the fact that you download one application and it works everywhere, and works well. I looked through the ads and forgot. But…
After a while, I received an excellent SMS, with a more aggressive marketing policy.
This is not in any frame climbed. That is, if earlier I even had a choice, to use curves as an inconvenient application that works everywhere and a little less curve, but which only works in Belarus, but now they have decided to pick this choice insolently. As for me - this is an absolute disrespect to users, an attempt to impose their policies, completely scoring on the opinions of customers.
That Tuesday came, I went into the old application and was able to order a taxi to work. Hurray, I thought, rude cheap marketing, but I, in principle, do not lose anything. But my happiness did not last long.
Happiness, when in the early morning you are late for work, you have little battery power on your phone, and even Yandex cheered you up.
I received this message the next morning. Fortunately, the phone had an application from another company that does not have enough stars from the sky, but treats its customers much better.
It would seem that I still get to work, uber in other countries will work for me, like the problem is solved ... But why did I decide to write this article all the same? And everything is simple, recently the same Uber Azerbaijan application was released, there is also an Uber Russia application. Surely for each CIS country will be its application. Does the user get real profit from these applications? Absolutely none. And there are plenty of minuses.
First of all, if I specify Belarus in my Google account, then I can’t download either Uber Azerbaijan or Uber Russia. This means that if I suddenly decide to visit one of these countries, I will not be able to call myself a taxi from the airport until I change the country in the Play Market. A change of country in some cases deprives you of paid subscriptions to Google services if they are not available in your country. What else? The application has lost the opportunity to see detailed information about the tariff. Also, once you get into the car and the driver starts the ride, you will no longer see his name. Opportunities to build a complex route, we have not received. Everything also lags and terribly buggy location of the driver in real time. Yandex cards may be better filled in some CIS countries, but in themselves are still a pain, judging by the same thing, I'll remove from Yandex.
And where are the promised buns concerning local markets?
Well, and the last. A few years ago, a law was introduced in Azerbaijan that taxed all international online payments. To the cost of the trip was added a tax of 18%. It would be logical if, when a new local application appeared, the money transfer would be carried out within the country, so that people would not pay an extra 18%. But no, no one has received such innovation in the local cleaner.
I still repeatwhat xWhat is the profit of the transition to new local applications? How to be to people who travel frequently? When will we finally get at least that feature set that was in the old, good, normal Uber application? Well, finally, how long will such aggressive business-oriented marketing continue, and how else will you be so brazen as to target your users?
I have everything, I hope, Yandex employees will be able to answer at least some of the questions. Alas, we probably won't get the old application anymore. It is a pity that we have taken away one of the best applications on the taxi market in the CIS.
UPD . The ability to create a complex route appeared, just changed the UX, because it was not obvious.
UPD2For those who read between the lines: I have no claims in terms of what I did not update the application and it stopped working. I just described my dissatisfaction with the service and the application, and now the zoo of applications, from using the Uber version of Yandex.
So let's start with nostalgia. Remember the days when Yandex was not involved in any way. What a great time. Convenient application, a bunch of features (for example, drawing up complex routes or planned trips), responsive support service and drivers who are very different from other drivers. The difference lay in the fact that not only taxi drivers, but ordinary drivers came across most often in uber, and they apparently received some training on how to behave and how they should behave. Good times were ...
So, Yandex somehow magically combined with Uber. At this point in time I was in Minsk, and this greatly affected my convenience. To begin with, when we merged, the application changed. More precisely, formally, it was the same, but absolutely everything changed inside. For example, the opportunity to make a route with stops was gone. Also it was not possible to change the landing coordinates after ordering. But it sometimes saved a lot of time for you and the driver. Also, it was not possible to share live coordinates, which is also very convenient. The map began to work with glitches. First, the smoothness of movement disappeared somewhere, and secondly, the coordinates often began to jump. That is, you do not always understand where the car is located. What else? Lost the difference between which side of the street you put a mark. What is left, what's right. I don't know
Also, in the first few days the rating of all drivers uber fell to 4.2. Yandex did not transfer ratings, but moved the number of trips. Imagine the shock of drivers, who have several thousand trips and a good rating. “Fixed” their mistake with a huge crutch. Rating all drivers raised to 5 (facepalm).
By the way, did I say that the application for drivers also deteriorated? Every driver, whoever I asked about their new application, at least swore, trying to describe the new UX.
An interesting fact, when I flew to Kiev for several days, the same application was rebuilt into the old Uberovsky interface and worked very well.
Well, okay, I thought, the guys from Yandex just took up the product, deadlines, everything will probably be fixed in the near future. I waited a long time, a month, two, three, five, and here I came across an advertisement in a Facebook feed: Download the Uber BY application and get a 40% discount on all trips.
An interesting marketing ploy, isn't it? All the same, a weighty discount, but no, thank you, I do not want. All the convenience of Uber lies precisely in the fact that you download one application and it works everywhere, and works well. I looked through the ads and forgot. But…
After a while, I received an excellent SMS, with a more aggressive marketing policy.
This is not in any frame climbed. That is, if earlier I even had a choice, to use curves as an inconvenient application that works everywhere and a little less curve, but which only works in Belarus, but now they have decided to pick this choice insolently. As for me - this is an absolute disrespect to users, an attempt to impose their policies, completely scoring on the opinions of customers.
That Tuesday came, I went into the old application and was able to order a taxi to work. Hurray, I thought, rude cheap marketing, but I, in principle, do not lose anything. But my happiness did not last long.
Happiness, when in the early morning you are late for work, you have little battery power on your phone, and even Yandex cheered you up.
I received this message the next morning. Fortunately, the phone had an application from another company that does not have enough stars from the sky, but treats its customers much better.
It would seem that I still get to work, uber in other countries will work for me, like the problem is solved ... But why did I decide to write this article all the same? And everything is simple, recently the same Uber Azerbaijan application was released, there is also an Uber Russia application. Surely for each CIS country will be its application. Does the user get real profit from these applications? Absolutely none. And there are plenty of minuses.
First of all, if I specify Belarus in my Google account, then I can’t download either Uber Azerbaijan or Uber Russia. This means that if I suddenly decide to visit one of these countries, I will not be able to call myself a taxi from the airport until I change the country in the Play Market. A change of country in some cases deprives you of paid subscriptions to Google services if they are not available in your country. What else? The application has lost the opportunity to see detailed information about the tariff. Also, once you get into the car and the driver starts the ride, you will no longer see his name. Opportunities to build a complex route, we have not received. Everything also lags and terribly buggy location of the driver in real time. Yandex cards may be better filled in some CIS countries, but in themselves are still a pain, judging by the same thing, I'll remove from Yandex.
And where are the promised buns concerning local markets?
Well, and the last. A few years ago, a law was introduced in Azerbaijan that taxed all international online payments. To the cost of the trip was added a tax of 18%. It would be logical if, when a new local application appeared, the money transfer would be carried out within the country, so that people would not pay an extra 18%. But no, no one has received such innovation in the local cleaner.
I still repeat
I have everything, I hope, Yandex employees will be able to answer at least some of the questions. Alas, we probably won't get the old application anymore. It is a pity that we have taken away one of the best applications on the taxi market in the CIS.
UPD . The ability to create a complex route appeared, just changed the UX, because it was not obvious.
UPD2For those who read between the lines: I have no claims in terms of what I did not update the application and it stopped working. I just described my dissatisfaction with the service and the application, and now the zoo of applications, from using the Uber version of Yandex.