Have you ever wondered what is really happening in the world of Ridesharing? Who is leading, where are they operating and how are they linked? While it seems that everyone is competing for ride and AV supremacy, the facts are much stranger in reality. So, I decided to make a "road-map" of the rideshare marketplace of Uber.
Didi Chuxing, China
Value: $52 billion
Didi is a monopoly in China and holds the Chinese rideshare market firmly. There are competitors starting to emerge, but possibly a little bit late in the game. Didi is now in Mexico, Brazil, and Japan.
Uber sold Didi their Chinese operations for an 18% stake in Didi, and both companies share a board seat on each other's board. SoftBank invested $10 billion in Didi. Didi is also collaborating with Lyft in the US.
Ola, India
Value: $3.7 billion
Ola's main market is India, where Uber is seriously investing. Ola has started to take its first step outside the region and is now in Australia, another Uber territory. SoftBank invested $2 billion in Ola.
Lyft, USA
Value: $11.5 billion
Lyft is Uber's main and only rideshare rival in the USA. Lyft controls around 30% of the US rideshare market. Lyft has also set up sites in Canada.
Grab, Singapore
Value: $6 billion
Grab has a strong presence all around Southeast Asia, and has sites in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and of course Singapore. Didi is invested in Grab, and Uber is considering selling Grab their Southeast Asia operations.
GoJek, Indonesia
Value: $1.8 billion
GoJeck is a newcomer to the scene, this Indonesian company has grown exponentially since its inception and is involved in e-commerce and e-pay to supplement its rideshare platform.
Taxify, Estonia
Value: Investments were $2.2 billion
This Estonian based rideshare company is found all over Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is in a partnership with Didi.
Yandex, Russia
Yandex bought out Uber's rideshare market presence in Russia.
Cabify, Spain
Value: Investments were $450 million
This Spanish rideshare company mainly operates in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Argentina.
99, Brazil
This local rideshare company was bought out by Didi and provides them with the majority stake in the Brazillian rideshare market. SoftBank invested $100 million in 99 back in 2017.
Careem, UAE
Value: Investments of $570 million
Careem operates mainly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia.
The SoftBank effect, not to confuse two entities with the same name. There is SoftBank Capital that was bought out by Foxconn in 2016; this is the company that invested in Ola and Grab. Then there is SoftBank, which is another entity that has invested in Uber, DoorDash ($535 million this month), Ola, Grab, 99.
As you can see, the rideshare market is not as saturated as it would seem, in fact when you filter out all the really small localized companies, you end up with a list of 11 main contenders. SoftBank is trying to cut up the world into sectors, maximizing the effect of every investment in each sector. They hope that this strategy will rout out the smaller competitors and give SoftBank global control over the rideshare market. Also note that Uber, Didi, Ola, Grab and 99 are all Softbank investments.