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Ola shares slide after spat with Indian comedian over e-scooter maker's service

Ola Electric’s shares tumbled 9 per cent on Monday after a public spat between the founder of India’s biggest e-scooter maker and a comedian revived questions over service at the SoftBank-backed company, whose sales are falling.

Indian comedian Kunal Kamra on Sunday posted an undated photo to his 2.4 million followers on X which showed dozens of e-scooters gathering dust outside an Ola showroom, triggering a wave of online complaints from other users.

Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal responded by saying Kamra should “sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues”, adding that the company is expanding its service network fast.

Ola, which has a 27 per cent market share in India’s e-scooter market, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

After a stellar stock market debut in August, shares in Ola have dropped 43 per cent from their all-time high as it faces growing anger on social media over its service, and analysts flag concerns about its market share, which has fallen for five months in a row due to growing competition and service concerns.

“Consumer complaints on social media do have (an) impact on the company ... The current social media spat is going to have a medium to short-term impact,” said Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at Wealthmills Securities.

HSBC analysts said in a note last month that they visited multiple Ola service stations and most “appeared overwhelmed by the service requests and were struggling to provide adequate service quality”, adding they had a “huge backlog”.

Following the HSBC note, Aggarwal said he plans to double Ola’s service centre network by December, from 500 currently.

Reuters last year visited 35 Ola centres in 10 Indian states and found many faced significant backlogs, with demand outstripping their workforce or their supply of spare parts.

At one centre, there were more than 100 scooters parked, many covered in bird droppings.

Last month, a 26-year-old man was arrested for allegedly setting fire to an Ola showroom in a southern Indian state in protest over unsatisfactory servicing, police said.