Launch of Novel Apps Paves The Way Of Ride-Hailing Service Market

Thanks to ride-hailing services, it has become a piece of cake to travel from point A to B. These services have offered the most comfortable means of transportation with its door-to-door service and somehow managed to make it safer than the traditional taxi services. The rising trend of on-demand transportation services, decreasing rate of car ownership among millennials, and new opportunity of employment are the major factors that are driving the growth of the ride-hailing service market. According to Allied Market Research, the global ride-hailing service market is projected to garner $126.52 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 16.5% from 2018 to 2025.

It has been some exciting years for ride-hailing service market, especially after the introduction of mobility-as-a-service and swipe-able, affordable, and scalable applications. With the increase in user base for ride-sharing, a ride-hailing services application has become a money magnet for the market players.

Waymo launches ride-hailing app

Waymo, Alphabet’s subsidiary that deals with self-driving cars technology, has recently entered into the ride-hailing market by launching its new ride-hailing app on Google Play Store. The company has launched a limited commercial robotaxi service, named Waymo One, in December for the Phoenix residents and the service is aimed to bring vetted regular folks into its self-driving minivans.

Waymo had released the app for Android and iPhone users for some time. However, to gain access to the app, riders must visit the company’s website and accept the early rider program and then would receive the link to the app to download to their device. Prior to this, Waymo started to allow early riders to hail self-driven minivan in 2018. However, recently, the company has launched a public transit program in Phoenix that is aimed to deliver people to bus stops and train stations.

Ola expands its services in the U.K.

Bengaluru, India-based ride-hailing company, Ola, recently confirmed that it has successfully launched its services in three cities of the U.K., including Liverpool, Reading, and Birmingham. Now, the local councils have granted licenses of its taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV).

According to the press release of Ola, its app does not allow any user to hire electric rickshaws and the green-colored “tuk-tuks” are available for a limited period and were part of a promotional campaign. On the other hand, Ola cleared the customers can hire black cabs as well as private hire vehicles using the app. Moreover, the black cabs won’t have peak pricing and thus, will be cheaper when there will be high demand for PHVs.

Sony launches S.Ride taxi-hailing service in Tokyo

Sony’s S.Ride taxi-hailing service recently partnered with five Japanese taxi companies to gather more than 10,000 cabs in Tokyo. A joint project of Sony, Everyone’s taxi (Minna no Taxi), and Sony Payment Service joined their forces with five companies, including International Motor Vehicles, Green Cab, Daiwa Car Transportation, Kotobuki Kotsu, and Checker Cab, to launch a novel taxi-hailing app.

The app enables a user to call the closest taxi as the taxi pick-up position is automatically calibrated to find the closest road from the current location. Moreover, users can pay using credit cards as well as the S.Ride Wallet that includes a QR code scanner to make payments.

The recent launch of several mobile application aimed to match with the rising trend of on-demand transportation services and increasing user base of ride-hailing service shows that the days of buying personal cars are coming to an end. Moreover, according to various surveys, the use of ride-sharing platforms and apps for daily transportation is cheaper than maintaining a personal car. Thus, market players are expecting an exponential growth of the ride-hailing service market in the future.

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