Open networks worked first in mobility. Namma Yatri shows why

Running strategy and growth for a cab service in Jammu means I pay close attention to how the national players price their drivers. The biggest change of the last two years did not come from Uber or Ola. It came from an open-network app in Bengaluru that refused to take a commission, and the rest of the industry followed.

The numbers

Namma Yatri, which runs on India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) with open data and open-source code, passed 100 million rides in 2025 and says it enabled more than ₹1,600 crore of earnings for over 6 lakh drivers. Bengaluru accounted for nearly 85 million of those trips and Kolkata about 10 million. It launched zero-commission cabs in Bengaluru in April 2024, after starting with autos.

On the wider network, mobility and retail went in opposite directions. ONDC logged 8.1 million mobility transactions in February 2025, up 47% from 5.5 million in October 2024. Retail orders peaked at 6.5 million in October 2024 and fell to 4.6 million by February 2025 as the network capped the incentives it paid sellers and buyers.

Why mobility worked when retail struggled

A ride is a simple, repeatable transaction with two parties and a price that both can see. The driver gains the most from removing the commission, so supply has a reason to join the network without a subsidy. Retail on an open network needs catalogues, inventory, payments, returns and delivery to work across many independent apps, and much of the early usage was paid for by incentives. When the incentives were capped, retail orders fell and mobility kept growing.

The concentration is the caveat. With about 85% of Namma Yatri's rides in Bengaluru, the model is proven in one city with a strong local community of drivers, and the question for anyone investing is how well it travels.

What it did to the incumbents

Rapido moved drivers to flat subscriptions from December 2023, Uber followed for autos in February 2025, saying it wanted to avoid a competitive disadvantage, and Ola rolled out a national version in June 2025. A zero-commission open network changed what drivers expect to keep, and the commission-based platforms adapted. I run that change through my framework, from each party's chair, in the zero-commission shift, seen from every chair.

The thesis

Open networks win first where the supply side gains the most from removing the platform's cut and the transaction is simple enough to run across apps without subsidy. That points to mobility, local services and some kinds of logistics before complex retail. For investors, the value moves away from the commission and toward what sits around the transaction: driver financing, vehicle leasing, insurance, fleet software and reliability that an open network does not guarantee on its own.

That last point matters for any operator. An open network can make a ride cheaper to book. It cannot make a car turn up. The businesses that organise reliable supply on top of open rails, the kind I describe in my thesis on building beyond the metros, should still have room to earn.

What would prove this wrong

• Namma Yatri failing to grow outside Bengaluru, which would mean the model depends on one city's driver community.
• Open-network mobility volumes falling once any remaining incentives end.
• Commission-based platforms winning drivers back with guaranteed earnings that an open network cannot match.

Sources

• Business Standard: Namma Yatri hits 100 million rides, enables ₹1,600 crore of driver earnings
• Business Standard: Namma Yatri launches a zero-commission cab service in Bengaluru (April 2024)
• Business Standard: Retail growth slows on ONDC as the platform caps incentives (March 2025)
• Inc42: Uber follows Rapido with a zero-commission model for auto drivers