Travelling is something that has always accompanied us, it’s necessary to move from one location to another. During the decades, the concept of travelling has transformed in a sophisticated way. Nowadays people drive cars, take trains and subways to reach their destinations. Not to mention airplanes and boats. All those ways of travelling, how different they may sound, are subject to technological transformation. Without the transformation of software and hardware in it’s broadest sense, we still would be walking or riding a horse.
What is Uber?
Uber is a multinational online transportation network company. To passengers, Uber is essentially synonymous with taxis, and to drivers, it’s basically a referral service. The app connects riders with drivers using their phone’s GPS capabilities, letting both parties know one another’s location and removing the question of when the ride will actually arrive. In addition, the tech company also processes all payments involved, charging the passenger’s credit card, taking a cut for itself (which ranges from 5% to 20%), and direct depositing the remaining money into the driver’s account, all in the background and completely cashless.
What is BlaBlaCar?
BlaBlaCar is the largest long distance ridesharing platform that connects drivers with empty seats and passengers to share travel costs. Members must register and create a personal online profile, which includes ratings and reviews by other members, social network verification, and rate of response. Profiles of members show how much experience they have of the service, meaning those with more attract more ride shares and, importantly, each user’s profile includes a “BlaBla” measurement, which indicates how much they are willing to chat during a trip.
Future predictions:
Uber has a quite uncertain, but nonetheless possibly promising future ahead. Only recently they have announced that they will be testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Self-driving cars are a futuristic concept, which will arguably grow in the years to come. It is however possible that there are serious problems ahead for Uber, since the law regulations can get stricter, which can cause them to lose a great market share worldwide. Another future prediction is the development of better maps. Maps are fundamental to Uber and it’s expansion into new markets.
The last 5 years BlaBlacar has expanded itself throughout Europe and is growing at a fast pace. One of the most recent expansions was the expansion to India in early 2015. Because the BlaBlacar’s business model is still very innovative, the company continues to expand. Due to the nature of the product BlaBlacar offers, the popularity of the platform will presumably grow, because sharing economy is a trend that is constantly increasing in importance. However, in order to remain successful, BlaBlacar has to defend it’s reputation at all costs, since it’s a critical asset for BlaBlaCar. After all, who would like to share a car with a stranger if he couldn’t trust him?
Group 5:
Olcan Ayaz
Tomasz Kowalik
Hady Naorie Bah
Julian Ost
Sources:
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How much money BlaBlaCar could be making? Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-blablacar-could-be-making-2015-9
BlaBlaCar business model. Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://unicornomy.com/blablacar-business-model/
Uber loses at least 1-2 bilion in gross revenue over next 12 months. (2016) Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/uber-loses-at-least-1-2-billion-in-first-half-of-2016
Lyft on the road to 1 biblion in gross revenus over next 12 months. (2015). Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/11/17/lyft-on-the-road-to-1-billion-in-gross-revenue-over-next-12-months/#2e5a59b330c9
Uber information. Retrieved 13 September 2016, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber#/entity
Lyft were closing in on Uber with path to profitability. (2016) Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/05/12/lyft-were-closing-in-on-uber-with-path-to-profitability/#756002db464e
The thruth about how ubers app manages drivers. (2016) Retrieved 13 September 2016, from https://hbr.org/2016/04/the-truth-about-how-ubers-app-manages-drivers
Uber drunk driving study. (2016). Retrieved 13 September 2016, from http://fortune.com/2016/07/28/uber-drunk-driving-study/
