Uber Wants To Conquer The World
Sep 09, 2015
Ride-hailing apps are scrambling to grab market share as demographics shift and smartphones proliferate. The map above shows where already dominates — and where Uber is the Lyft to someone else’s Uber. Here are the companies that stand between Uber and its world domination in each continent:
ASIA:
China
Major: Didi Kuaidi
Minor: Uber, Yidao Yongche, Shenzhou Zhuanche, AA Carpool
Didi Kuaidi, Uber’s biggest rival, is a merger of China’s two biggest ride-hailing apps, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. The company claims 6 million rides a day, six times that of Uber in China. The chart below shows share of private car ride orders in the first quarter of 2015.
India
Major: Olacabs
Minor: Uber, Meru
Uber’s entry forced larger players Ola and TaxiForSure to merge in March, amassing 80% market share and raising another $400 million from powerful backers like SoftBank and Tiger Global. Mobile analytics firm Quettra estimated the portion of smartphones in India with each app installed (shown in the bar chart below):
South Korea
Minor: KakaoTaxi, Uber, Limo Taxi, T-Map Taxi, Hailo, Easy Taxi, Baek Gisa
South Korea banned UberX and charged its CEO and senior executives of breaking transportation laws. South Korea’s popular messaging app Daum KaKao launched its own taxi-hailing service in March.
Japan
Minor: Line Taxi, Hailo, Uber
Japan’s most popular messaging app, LINE, launched its taxi service in early 2015.
Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines
Major: GrabTaxi
Minor: Uber, Easy Taxi
Singapore’s GrabTaxi, front-runner in six Southeast Asian markets, has joined the global anti-Uber alliance with $700 million in investments from Asian giants like SoftBank and Didi Kuaidi.
EUROPE:
U.K.
Major: Uber, Gett
Minor: Hailo, Addison Lee
Uber has infuriated cabbies, but Israel’s Gett has gained ground by targeting black-cab hailing.
France
Major: BlablaCar
Minor: Uber, Chaffeur-Prive, LeCab
BlaBlaCar focuses on long-distance carpooling and raised $100 million in 2014 to expand in Europe.
Spain
Major: MyTaxi, Hailo
Minor: Cabify
Uber has been protesting its ban in Spain since last December. Users have turned to legal taxi-hailing apps like Hailo and MyTaxi as well as Cabify.
Czech Republic
Minor: Uber, Liftago, Tick Tack Taxi, AAA
Prague became the first destination for Uber’s expansion in central and eastern Europe last August. Local rival Liftago already claims to have 10% of Prague drivers.
Germany
Major: Mytaxi Minor: Wundercar, Uber, BlablaCar, Blacklane
Germany’s Wundercar resembles Lyft in that it allows passengers to tip a driver. The government has put a stop to most profit-taking car-hailing services for now.
Sweden
Minor: Uber, Taxijakt
Sweden’s taxi industry and government welcomed competition from Uber.
Russia
Major: Yandex
Minor: Uber, Gett
Russian search engine Yandex has a taxi-hailing app with a two-year head start on Uber.
NORTH AMERICA:
Canada
Major: Uber
Uber’s only real competitors are taxi companies with their own smartphone apps.
Mexico
Major: Uber
Minor: Cabify, Easy Taxi, Yaxi
In July Mexico City became the first Latin American city to pass regulations accommodating Uber ‘ s private car service (and smaller Cabify). But two weeks later cabbies rioted, attacking Uber drivers outside the airport.
United States
Major: Uber, Lyft
Minor players: Sidecar, Flywheel, Via, Curb
Everything Uber knows how to do it learned first in its home country, from winning over (or wearing down) regulators to lashing out at Lyft, its biggest U.S. rival.
SOUTH AMERICA:
Brazil
Major: Easy Taxi, Uber
Easy Taxi, born in Startup Weekend Rio in 2011 and backed by Germany’s Rocket Internet, has now expanded into 30 countries with a $77 million war chest.
Colombia
Major: Cabs
Minor: Uber, Easy Taxi
Uber entered in 2013, but local taxi unions fought back by calling massive strikes.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA:
Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa
Minor: Easy Taxi, Maramoja (Kenya), Uber
While Uber is adapting for a demographic with low penetration of smartphone usage, Brazil’s Easy Taxi has gained an edge by better vetting local drivers in high-crime cities.
United Arab Emirates/Middle East
Major: Uber, Careem
Minor: Easy Taxi
Uber and Careem of Dubai both let users call private cars in large cities across the Middle East and Africa, while EasyTaxi lets users e-hail taxis.
Israel
Major: Gett
Minor: RideWith, Uber
Homegrown Gett has a strong grip on the market, while Uber is growing but still illegal. Recent surprise entrant is RideWith, an app made by Google's Waze.
Turkey
Minor: Uber, BiTaksi
Turkey’s market is relatively new–both Uber and local player BiTaksi launched last year, starting in tourist-heavy Istanbul.
OCEANIA:
Australia
Major: Cabcharge, Uber
Minor: Ingogo, GoCatch, RideBoom
Despite murky legal status, Uber has reportedly gained half a million passengers.
Source: Forbes