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

Ola Electric's. shares toppled 9% on Monday after a public spat between the. creator of India's biggest escooter maker and a comic. revived questions over service at the SoftBankbacked company,. whose sales are falling.

Indian comic Kunal Kamra on Sunday published an undated. picture to his 2.4 million fans on X which revealed dozens of. e-scooters gathering dust outside an Ola display room, activating a. wave of online complaints from other users.

Ola's founder Bhavish Aggarwal reacted by saying Kamra. ought to sit peaceful and let us concentrate on repairing the problems, including. that the company is broadening its service network fast.

Ola, which has a 27% market share in India's e-scooter. market, did not respond to an ask for talk about Monday.

After an excellent stock exchange launching in August, shares in Ola. have actually dropped 43% from their all-time high as it deals with growing. anger on social networks over its service, and analysts flag. issues about its market share, which has actually fallen for five. months in a row due to growing competition and service issues.

Consumer problems on social networks do have (an) influence on. the company ... The existing social media spat is going to have a. medium to short-term impact, stated Kranthi Bathini, director of. equity technique at Wealthmills Securities.

HSBC experts said in a note last month that they went to. numerous Ola service stations and many appeared overwhelmed by. the service requests and were having a hard time to offer appropriate. service quality, including they had a big backlog.

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

Reuters last year checked out 35 Ola centres in 10 Indian states. and found lots of dealt with substantial backlogs, with need. overtaking 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 guy was detained for apparently. setting fire to an Ola display room in a southern Indian state in. protest over unsatisfactory maintenance, authorities stated.

(source: Reuters)