Abhishek Dhawan

The Uber referral arbitrage: 30-cent rides, $10 credits

Abhishek explains his core scheme: Uber paid referral bonuses scaled to local currency, but rides in India cost only ~30-50 cents, so each cheap ride generated a $10 US referral credit he could resell.

“Uh, it's a basic arbitrage. Like arbitrage in India? Yeah, arbitrage. In, in US they used to give like $10, $20 referral value. In India they used to give ₹100, ₹200, ₹300 in rupees. And in India one ride cost, it starts from ₹50 also, ₹50 or ₹25. If you convert it to dollars, it will be like 30 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents max. So we are taking rides using that 50 cents, and in turn, Uber is giving us $10 in US.”

Steal thisHunt for systems that price incentives in one currency or geography while costs sit in a much cheaper one, then arbitrage the gap.

He hired managers to run squads of kids taking Uber rides

To manufacture an endless supply of new-rider referrals, Abhishek paid people to manage kids who would create burner accounts (India only needed a phone number, no credit card) and take cheap rides to trigger referral bonuses.

“I have a few people who work for me, kind of, and they manage those kids. Like, they sign up many accounts from there because in India Uber doesn't require credit cards. In US they require. So India, you just need to have a number to create an account. So few people, they create account so that other people, other kids, they take ride and you get referral bonus.”

The Maldives trick: set country to where Uber doesn't operate

When US referral values dropped to $5, Abhishek discovered that setting an account's country to a place Uber didn't operate defaulted the referral value back to $10. After Sri Lanka got Uber service, he switched buyers to the Maldives.

“Yeah, so somewhere where Uber is not running. So initially we tried Sri Lanka, but after that they are like— Uber is operating in Sri Lanka also. Then in Sri Lanka, refer value is set to Sri Lankan value, like some 100 rupees or something, Sri Lankan value. Then we found Maldives, and then any other country you can set where Uber is not there, Uber is not operating, then it was setting default value to $10, but $10 is good value for everyone to buy, so they were buying.”

Uber-credit hustle peaked at $20K/month

Abhishek's referral-credit reselling business hit $20,000 a month in revenue at its peak, while his apartment in India cost about $350/month.

“$350 US dollars. And you at your peak were doing $20K a month.”