From Delhi to Bengaluru, users report ride failures and error messages as Rapido battles technical downtime amid recent product expansions.
Rapido Faces Multi-City Outage, Leaves Users Stranded
Rapido, India’s popular bike-taxi and mobility app, experienced a major service outage today, with widespread disruptions reported across Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Kolkata. The platform was inaccessible to users, many of whom flagged login failures and incomplete rides on social media.
Affected users encountered an error message stating:
“Oops! Something went wrong at our end. Please try again later.”
So far, no official statement has been issued by the company explaining the cause of the outage, despite outreach from media platforms.
Not Just Rapido: A String of Tech Disruptions in India
Rapido’s disruption adds to a growing pattern of service outages plaguing Indian digital platforms.
- Just weeks ago, a Cloudflare glitch knocked out trading platforms like Zerodha, Groww, and Angel One.
- Global apps like YouTube, ChatGPT, and X (formerly Twitter) have all faced sporadic outages.
- Closer to home, UPI services and key fintech apps have seen infrastructure-induced blackouts.
What’s going wrong? Experts cite server overloads, third-party infrastructure failures, and scaling mismatches during traffic spikes as common culprits.
Rapido’s Tech Stack Under Strain Amid Expansion?
The outage comes at a sensitive time for Rapido, which has been rapidly diversifying its offerings.
- In October, it added flight, train, bus, and hotel bookings via partners like Goibibo, redBus, and ConfirmTkt.
- It also launched ‘Ownly’, a food delivery app to challenge Zomato and Swiggy in new cities.
- These integrations have significantly increased traffic load on Rapido’s core app infrastructure.
While expansion brings growth, it also amplifies platform complexity—raising the stakes for uptime reliability.
Financials and the Road Ahead
Despite its operational ambitions, Rapido remains in the red:
- FY24: ₹370 Cr net loss, with revenue growing 1.5x YoY to ₹648.1 Cr
- FY25: Projected revenue ₹1,000 Cr, with profitability targeted in FY26
The company has yet to file FY25 results. Investors and users alike will watch how Rapido balances platform stability with aggressive growth.
Can Rapido scale without cracking its core infrastructure? That may be the defining challenge of its next phase.
