Ola founder, Bhavish Aggarwal recently found himself in an altercation with stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on X (formerly Twitter) when the comedian posted a photo of Ola’s electric scooters at a service center, raising concerns at their quality and wondering about the rights of Indian consumers. The entrepreneur accused Kamra of ‘Paid Tweets’ and offered him a job to help fix the issues while taking a jab at the comedian’s ‘failed career’. The heated exchange of words soon went viral and reportedly Ola Electric’s stock plunged after this.
The company’s shares tanked falling to ₹85.21, wiping out ₹3,625 crore from the company’s market cap. This resulted in a significant drop from its August 20 high of ₹157.53, with Ola Electric’s valuation now dipping below $5 billion for the first time since its stock market debut.
RPG Group chairman Harsh Goenka also got himself involved in the ongoing social media spat between the Ola CEO and the popular comedian. Tagging Bhavish Aggarwal, Goenka humorously said, "If I have to travel close distances, I mean from one 'kamra' to another, I use my Ola," while sharing a picture of himself on an Ola electric vehicle.
The Bhavish-Kamra conflict added to a series of troubles for Ola with the company already dealing with innumerable customer complaints. The National Consumer Helpline has registered over 10,000 complaints about Ola e-scooters in the past year. Furthermore, the Central Consumer Protection Authority recently slapped the company with a show-cause notice, citing alleged misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices. However, Ola Electric had said that the notice would not affect its operations and would respond within the allotted 15-day time frame.
Thyrocare Founder, Dr. A. Velumani’s tweet has added some spice to the ongoing debate as he tweeted; “Can one tweet erode a 3500 crs of value for a company in 2 hrs. Or reason is not tweet.” It has left people discussing how a single social media post can add to injury with underlying service problems creating massive financial consequences for a company as big as Ola Electric.
