Snabbit and Urban Company's InstaHelp Each Complete Over 1 Lakh Jobs Amid Price War

On-demand house-help platforms Snabbit and Urban Company’s InstaHelp each crossed 1 lakh completed jobs on Sunday, as heightened competition in the segment drove the price of an hour of household work down to as low as Rs 29 in some locations, according to Supriya Roy’s Times of India report.

Snabbit said it had completed over 1.15 lakh jobs by 6:50 pm on Sunday, with the total expected to increase further by the end of the day. Urban Company said InstaHelp crossed the one lakh delivered orders mark at 5:54 pm.

According to the report, Urban Company described the milestone as a peak-day achievement and said sustained order volumes would depend on repeat usage, service quality and worker availability.

The report said both companies rolled out aggressive promotional offers. Screenshots reviewed by TOI showed Urban Company offering 30 minutes of InstaHelp Standard for Rs 19, while 45-minute and one-hour bookings were priced at Rs 29 in the location checked, representing discounts of up to 88% from regular rates.

Snabbit was also offering one-hour bookings for Rs 29 in some locations, according to screenshots shared on social media, the report added.

By around 7 pm on Sunday, Urban Company’s app reportedly showed instant service as unavailable in the location checked, with the next available slot scheduled for the following morning. InstaHelp promises worker arrivals within 10-15 minutes for household chores including sweeping, mopping, dishwashing, laundry and basic meal preparation.

Urban Company launched InstaHelp as a pilot in Mumbai in March last year and has since expanded the service to select neighbourhoods across major metropolitan cities.

“Crossing 100,000 delivered orders in a single day, barely five months after we crossed 50,000, reflects both the growing consumer demand for InstaHelp and the strength of the operating model we’ve built,” Urban Company co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal was quoted as saying by TOI.

The report also said Snabbit has grown from handling around 400 daily jobs to more than one lakh in under two years. The company completed four million house-help jobs during the April-June quarter, including 1.51 million jobs in June. It added that Snabbit’s cash burn per completed job declined by more than Rs 100 sequentially to below Rs 250.