Did Ola leave Australia?

Ola had operated in Australia since 2018 and, at the end, ran in most major cities — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth. The abruptness of the exit — two days between the email and the switch-off — caught both riders and drivers off guard, and the Transport Workers’ Union publicly pushed for a meeting to make sure drivers were paid what they were owed.

Officially, Ola framed it as a strategic reset: “we’ve reassessed our priorities and have decided to shut down our overseas ride-hailing business,” pointing to the bigger opportunity in India. Underneath that, the Australian numbers simply did not work against Uber.

• •Uber dominance: Uber took about 80% of all Australian rideshare trips in 2023, on roughly A$646 million of local revenue.
• •A distant field: DiDi’s 2023 Australian revenue was about A$14.3 million and Ola’s only about A$7.1 million — the two challengers combined were a rounding error next to Uber.
• •Discounts that couldn’t last: Ola bought market share with heavy rider discounts and driver incentives; once those wound back, its prices were no longer clearly cheaper, and users drifted away.
• •Focus on India: with an IPO in view, Ola chose to put capital into its profitable home market rather than a costly overseas fight.

Ola isn’t the first challenger to leave — a string of smaller rideshare brands have come and gone in Australia, leaving Uber and DiDi as the two mainstream apps, alongside the regulated taxi industry that operates in every town.

For drivers, the picture was messier: the Transport Workers’ Union sought an urgent meeting to ensure outstanding earnings were paid, reflecting how little runway the two-day notice gave anyone to reconcile balances. If you drove for Ola and are still owed money, the union is the right first port of call.

Three options replaced Ola for Australian riders. Which is cheapest depends on the time of day and how busy it is — but as a rule, DiDi is the budget pick off-peak, Uber is the one that’s always available, and a taxi is the capped, cash-friendly fallback.

• •DiDi — the closest match to Ola’s old budget positioning; usually the cheapest off-peak, but a smaller network and not in every city (no Hobart or Darwin).
• •Uber — the widest coverage and shortest waits nationwide, around 80% of the market; a little dearer than DiDi off-peak, and it surges on busy nights.
• •Regulated taxi — the only option you can hail on the street or grab from a rank, it takes cash, and its meter is capped by the state regulator so it can’t surge.

For a standard 10 km / 20 min city trip, here is roughly what each replacement costs. Rideshare figures are off-peak estimates that rise with surge; the taxi is the regulated maximum and never surges.

Off-peak, DiDi and Uber undercut the meter; on Friday/Saturday nights, public holidays and at events, rideshare surge (1.5×–3×) pushes both above the capped taxi, so the cab becomes the cheapest, most predictable option. Use the calculator for your city’s exact taxi figure, and the Uber & DiDi estimator to compare — then check the live app quote before booking.