There was a time when moving from one place to another was a matter of utility. People did not Care About Us lyrics like comfort. Public transportation was dominating the landscape of movement and private transport was considered a luxury.
Today, we live in a world where people expect more than just the movement. They do not want to compromise on the aspects of comfort and convenience. They would like to be picked up from their doorstep and they would like to be dropped precisely in the place that they want to be.
These transformations have given rise to the business of ride-hailing. There are a lot of companies that provide the service of transportation by picking people from one place and dropping them in a place of their choice.
The constructive onslaught of Smartphones enabled with GPS made the business of ride-hailing efficient, profitable and delightful to the customer.
The Promising Projections & The Massive Markets
The numbers are presenting the market growth and the projection, painting a very promising picture of the future then it comes to the business of ride-hailing. The market is expected to be worth about $220 billion in 2030. The growth will be at a staggering 20% CAGR from 2019 to 2030.
2017 saw the ride-sharing applications surpass the traditional yellow taxis of New York when it comes to the number of passengers being served. Uber, the first name that comes to ride-hailing, is valued at $70 billion and has over 3 million drivers spread across 600 cities in 78 countries.
Regional players like Ola, Grab, Didi Chuxing and Careem have also tasted success parallel to Uber, and sometimes trumping the big U. This has only ascertained the fact that there is a market that is wide and still open to Uber-like apps. Developing a ride-hailing app has become easy with ready-made app solutions and the expert taxi app development companies.
The floodgates to on-demand businesses have been opened because of cab booking services. The cab services follow different business models. Let us look at a few different aspects of these business models.
The Classic (Or Maybe Not!) Business Model
What Uber did was nothing more than connecting and excess of demand with an excess of supply by creating an interface that streamlines the communication between the two. It was more than just an innovator - it was a disruptor. It had shaken the basic perception of cabs.the company brought with it, a lot of new things that would go on to redefine a lot of businesses.
Sharing Economy
In the year 2002, the sharing economy was discussed as a concept at Harvard. a lot of companies it not this business model but not uber. It had created a promising segment of the economy just by following this model. To this day, the skeleton of Uber business model remains the same.
Surge Pricing
This is one of the most controversial features of Uber and been infamously replicated by most of the Uber clone apps. However, given the fact that the primary utility of the app is to provide safe transportation, surge pricing can be considered an important and relevant feature. It is not as unidirectional as it is thought to be. It takes into consideration a multitude of factors like weather, local events, traffic, demand, and booking patterns.
Open-To-All Model
It does not take a lot to be an Uber driver. Uber allows anyone to be a driver by just registering and submitting a verification by the local police. On the surface, it might seem like Uber has employed a lot of people. However, it is precisely where Uber cracked the code of profit. The drivers are responsible for the car and the maintenance. They function more like a contractor who gets played on a commission basis. In this way, uber avoids all the applications of employing such a massive number of people.
This again has changed the perception of running a business. It has given rise to the notion that you do not have to own the services that you provide. You just need to own (or at least, have access to) the information about the people who provide the service!
What More Can You Do?
Uber is to on-demand location-based services is like how Newton's law was to put a man on the moon. The basic equation that governs the business has been unlocked by Uber. The only limits for the possibilities is imagination and the limitation in execution. Even within the realm of transport, there are a lot of possibilities that can use the framework of Uber.
Shuttle services
Services like Urbvan and Shuttl have used this business model. They understand that there is a need for people to commute from their homes to their offices at specific times of the day. They also understand that there is some pattern in the concentration of homes and offices of people who are likely to avail of this service. In addition to that, they also have a good idea of the requirements of comfort and convenience.
This has resulted in the creation of vans that provide comfortable and punctual transportation to people who commute on a daily basis. Additional services like Wi-Fi and safety serve as attractive garnishes to these shuttle services.
Luxury Transportation
There was a time when taxis where luxury. They would be available only in the airport. Today, when cabs have become mainstream, there is a need for some other mode of transport to fill that space of luxury. This is where companies like Wheely in the UK have fit themselves in.
Conveniences like advance booking, the holding of placards and the chauffeur-driven experience give it a luxurious feeling to the customers who want more than just a comfortable ride from the airport to their place of stay.
Ride-Sharing
There are some people who have retained their passion for driving amid the availability of the conveniences. Sometimes, they might move from one city to another with just them in the car. Some services like BlaBlaCar have capitalized on this crowd and have offered ride-sharing services. Instead of asking people to pay for the service, they present a case where they talk about taking a commission and paying to the original driver for sharing the fuel and wear-and-tear expenses.
The Possibilities of Expansion — The Examples
Using the same business model, there have been companies that have shifted their own version of success stories in different companies.
Swvl
This startup based out of Cairo in Egypt was founded in 2017 by a team of youngsters who worked with big names like Google, Uber and Quora. Expanding on the services offered by uber, provide a fleet of vans and passes that run between fixed locations and at a fixed time.
It is nothing more than an extension of public transport. However, in a place like Egypt where public transport is not that developed, this service makes a lot of sense. The primary customer target includes corporate employees and women who get an enhanced sense of comfort and security.
Safe Boda
In Uganda, Uber is quite likely to be considered as a costly choice for people. Therefore, three Ugandans, Alistair Sussock, Maxine Dieudonne and Rapa Thomson, created a motorbike taxi service.
Responding to the Government's concern over safety, Safe Boda pics extreme care in training the drivers. Each driver is provided with an extra helmet with a hairnet for the passenger.
The Relevance of Ready-made app solutions
It is is no longer speculation - ride-hailing services are here to stay for a long time and succeed as well. Anything said, there are a lot of opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to create their own ride-hailing band.
Instead of investing money and time in building the app from scratch, entrepreneurs can opt to use Uber clone apps that are available in the market.
These Uber clone scripts that are almost ready to be launched as a service. With the customization options, you can incorporate multiple business models and launch your app to perform services specific to a particular market.
