This builds upon a deal signed with Didi Kuaidi, China’s largest ride-hailing company, in September, which also came with a $100 million investment into Lyft.
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The arrangement is an extension of an ongoing pact between US-based Lyft and Chinese cab aggregator Didi Kuaidi. Now, Southeast Asia’s GrabTaxi and India’s Ola Cabs are entering the mix as well. Joint partner products will start rolling out in Q1 2016.
Under this partnership, the four taxi-hailing leaders will enable worldwide travellers to access local on-demand rides by using the same application they use in their respective countries.
Each country will handle mapping, routing and payments through a secure API, providing the best global experience for the millions of travelers that cross between India, Southeast Asia, China and the US every year.
Lyft has formed partnerships with two Asian on-demand ride services, Ola and GrabTaxi, as the USA company works to gain a toehold in the booming overseas market.
Starting early next year, Lyft users travelling to countries in the regions it has partners in, will be able to access the relevant service provider in English through the Lyft app and pay in U.S. dollars.
The transportation needs of a large and growing population in Asia have fuelled the rise of local taxi-hailing services in the region but they are facing stiff competition from Uber.
A few days later, Didi co-invested in India-based Ola’s US$500 million funding round. Uber has recently publicly said that it wants to and will be in a position to capture as much as 50% of the Indian taxi-hailing services’ market. Uber is profitable in more than 80 cities around the world, and the number of USA trips completed this year has increased 250 percent compared with the same period last year, people familiar with the matter said.
Wei said that this will be a “win for the diversity and vitality of the global rideshare industry”.
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The global expansion follows rapid growth for each of the 4 companies in 2015. It offers taxis, bike taxis, private cars, car-pooling and deliveries on its platform. Three of the four companies service customers in Asia, where these apps have increasingly gained in popularity as more consumers embrace smartphones. Passengers can download the app to book rides on their smartphones and tablets (iOS: http://bit.ly/grabtaxi-iOSand Android: http://bit.ly/grabtaxi-Android). Ola is committed to its mission of building mobility for a billion people. The app is available on Windows, Android and iOS platforms. Please visit www.olacabs.com for more information.
