Instant home-services apps in India will send a trained, background-checked worker to your door within minutes for as little as 25 rupees an hour, with some first bookings priced at one rupee. Behind that number sit an app, a tech team, customer support, a neighborhood manager and a worker on a fixed monthly salary.
Inc42’s explainer works through why the arithmetic cannot possibly balance, and who is actually absorbing the difference on every booking.
It is drawn from months of reporting, including what Urban Company has told its own investors about the race among Urban Company’s InstaHelp, Snabbit and Pronto.
