By: Azhar Azam
The Daimler-Uber deal might spark the wave of new synergy in cloud mobility services (akin to cloud computing) – conceived by Uber, Didi Chuxing and peers – where Daimler agreed to supply and operate self-driving Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
According to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, the ride-hailing market has scooped to $10 billion in no time – and has a potential to grow at 8x to $65 billion by 2030 – ‘outsizing the taxi market by 5.3x’.
Co-founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick (TK) in California, Uber is one of the most invaluable private companies in the world that operates in 724 cities of 84 countries and is valued at $69 billion by the market analysts.
Uber (World & US #1) doubled its gross bookings to $20 billion; outpacing the peers by more than tripling its net revenues – to $6.5 billion excluding China in 2016 from $2 billion a year earlier at a staggering 225% growth. The ride-hailing giant though suffered net losses of 2.8 billion.
Last year, Uber sold the China business to its local rival Didi Chuxing in exchange of 18% stakes (or $35 billion) after suffering $1 billion of losses – that could had otherwise bloated net losses to $3.8 billion in 2016.
Rang in fire-spread #DeleteUber campaign and a tide of scandals enforcing co-founder TK to resign as CEO, the cab-hailing company cloaked 17% growth in the gross bookings to $8.7 billion in the second quarter – twofold of its proceeds last year, according to financials revealed by the company to Axios.
A breathtaking 250% growth in developing countries also fueled global trips to increase by 150% year-over-year. Uber reported adjusted net revenue of $3.2 billion and adjusted net loss of $1.4 billion for first two quarters.
Didi Chuxing (World #2) is the largest ride-hailing network in China – posted annual revenues of $2.7 billion in 2016. Its scale of operations and service portfolio is however 5x-6x larger than the peers. Didi is also backed by investment internet giants such as – Tencent, Alibaba, and Apple, according to the research.
Lately, Uber’s global rivals are teaming up to benefit from its unending crisis to dent its global ride-hailing dominance.
China’s Didi Chuxing is leading the fray against Uber. After $1 billion of losses, Didi forced Uber to concede its business in China to Didi. Now domestic dominance is stirring Didi to challenge Uber in the rest of the world – as it plans to expand the business in Middle East and North Africa. The ride-sharing app is valued at $50 billion against Uber’s $69 billion and raised $5 billion revenue this year.
Didi is chasing Uber everywhere.
Last month, Didi entered into a strategic partnership with Dubai-based startup Careem to strengthen its business in the region. The partnership, off course is aimed at weakening Uber’s business expansion in Middle East. Careem, works in 80 cities of 12 countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), though is just $1 billion Company but has a strong footprint in the region. Like most of the vehicle app companies, Careem does not disclose its revenue.
Before Careem, Didi collaborated with Taxify to grow its network across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Taxify is working in 18 countries of Europe and Africa and has 2.5 billion users. Didi’s collaboration will provide Taxify the investment to spread transport service from Hungary and Romania, to South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Malaysian Grab, based in Singapore, is valued at $6 billion and is Uber’s main contender in South-East Asia. Didi, Again, financed Grab $2 billion to shore up its business in the region. Grab is operating in 36 cities of 7 countries in South-East Asia and claims more than 50 million downloads and 1.1 million drivers on its podium. The overall industry volume of the region is estimated at $13.1 billion in 2016 – up from 2.5 billion in 2015.
Lyft (#3 in world) is Uber’s main rival in the United States and only operates within the country. It greatly capitalized the #DeleteUber – social media campaign towed with Trump’s proposed Muslim ban and prompted taxi union protest – to boost its operations by 60%.
‘We saw a 60% increase in passenger activations after that’, said Lyft’s director of product in his Recode Decode podcast.
Lyft accounted for losses of $600 million in 2016 against revenue generation of $700 million from gross bookings of $5.5 billion for the year. In 2015, the company suffered losses of $360 million over revenue of $200 million. But Lyft’s market share is just a fraction of Uber’s and Didi’s.
Like Didi Chuxing in China, Uber ceded its Russia business to local rival, Yandex Taxi for 36.6% ownership stake worth nearly $1.6 billion – operates through Yandex, a search engine competing Google. The transport service is available in 127 cities in 6 countries across the region. Yandex Taxi operates in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Georgia.
Ola is the most popular cab-hailing app in India that competes with Uber in India. Uber (50.0%) and Ola (44.2%) had a combined 94.2% share of app installations in June 2017. Since September 2016, Uber has grown its app market share in India from 41.7% at the cost of Ola’s 54.8%. Valued at $3 billion, it operates in 110 cities nationwide, has a fleet of 600,000 vehicles, and posted revenue of just $150 million.
Easy Taxi, Cabify, 99, and Gett are some of the other Uber’s competitors in the global market – Easy Taxi serves North and Central America and is also available in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.