1 billion riders
Bolt, Uber, Ola, Kapten, Didi, Careem, Grab and other ride hailing app brands have become part of the day-to-day vocabulary in different languages across the globe. Unlike Facebook which near eradicated all of its competitors or Netflix which remains able to maintain a leadership position in the ‘streaming war’, a multitude of ride hailing apps operate in an exceedingly crowded competitive landscape.
Recent developments in ride hailing and the overall transformation of mobility in our societies show it will be highly interesting to track who wins where as well as how, in a market which is now also home to an app that aims to ‘aggregate transportation solutions to enable truly interconnected experiences, globally’ and in which flying cars could well become a premium ride option.
From hailing a ride…
Globally ride hailing is projected to grow at 14.8%* per year and is likely to remain one of the larger segments in the broader Mobility as a Service market. Penetration of this segment is significant and the days in which a ‘first mover advantage’ existed are over; nearly 1 billion of us have used a ride hailing service in 2019. A strong brand offering, focusing on the known, as well as uncovered, triggers and barriers for using ride hailing is needed to lead the pack and win customers in any given city. Think of a true ride hailing app battleground like London, having evolved the regulatory framework around facilitating multiple providers active within city limits. When you add digitally savvy consumers who are mindful of price to that equation you get the perfect mix for aggressive price promotions that breed multi-apping behaviour.
…to key triggers & barriers for usage
Price is one of the top three quoted reasons† by people who choose ride hailing over conventional taxis. With people actively switching between services, price becomes the main focal point for brands to try and acquire users. A complication for brands is found in addressing price as a growth lever, as it is both a trigger and a barrier. As with conventional taxis, uncertainty about the final charge forms a barrier to using a ride hailing service. Yet being able to apply dynamic pricing could see brands preside over competitors. Perhaps most important to consider is that overemphasizing price promotions in your marketing approach leads to other highly important reasons for brand choice being overlooked.
Bringing us to security, most likely the main barrier to usage. People’s conversations about ride hailing brands online also show security extrapolates to the broader concept of trust. Stories on incidents being amplified by social media, for example about a lady left at 3.30 am alongside a dangerous road, reach a lot of current and potential users. In that particular case the driver was no longer a factor that was under the brand’s control yet the immediate customer support response is. Overall, it is clear that several brands have struggled with balancing key triggers while delivering a service that also addresses barriers to usage.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
Peter Drucker
Tracking 1,000,000,000 (!) riders
Tracking what consumers think of your brand and combining this with the constantly evolving methods for social listening will generate rich insights. It will help a brand act on the issues that truly matter to their users, especially when it comes to UX, BX and CX (read as user ‡, brand and customer experience). While running a very basic query through Synthesio ¶, price and the using of whatever service offers the cheapest ride are indeed part of the major themes. The richness is found in the details provided, enhancing those details of tracking brand health.
For example, finding out that people actually feel ‘price wars’ between apps are getting out of hand:
Or that drivers cancelling on passengers when a ride is not seen as convenient at the time is a major issue (which is of course tied to ‘trust’):
And… well, perhaps this one can’t really be useful for strategic discussions around brand growth:
…and their drivers
Important themes that surface through social as well as brand analytics include:
- how drivers are treated and fair wages; a very important theme for brands to track, given user perceptions on the ‘gig-worker economy’ as well as driver app adoption (i.e. crucial for supply side)
- how brands behave as ‘responsible citizens’ cooperating with cities to truly enhance inner-city mobility and not be solely seen as profit seekers
- the importance of the environment with consumers preferring the car they ride in to be electric or hybrid
- a wealth of themes which can be uncovered, explored and acted upon to make the journey of brand growth truly sustainable
Becoming the brand that delivers a sense of personal relevance and being perceived as making people’s lives better is paramount to a ride hailing app’s success. A robust, validated and integrated brand tracking system can ensure you always have your finger on the consumer’s pulse and guide your marketing planning to influence the right levers at all times. Besides, the tracking of brand health allows a team to keep tabs on the close cooperation with the transport bodies across the different cities in which it operates.
Recently I have started working at Ipsos where I have the pleasure of working with amazing people who have a lot of experience in the mobility sector (see whitepapers in the footnotes 🤓). Experts across Ipsos have a great amount of knowledge on how to become the brand first considered when a person is making a choice about moving from point A to point B.
Being a user of several ride hailing services I felt it was important to write this post; mobility brands growing in truly sustainable ways is important for all societal stakeholders, both users and non users.
As always please engage with me on Twitter, LinkedIn or here on Medium, I love discussing anything marketing, business, startups, economics, finance, tech, etc.
I would love to hear any feedback you may have on this or any other posts I’ve written.
Please note that the opinions portrayed in this post are my own and this post, including the praising of my colleagues, was very much done on my own initiative 😄
Footnotes
*= Statista has a ride hailing data page, including this % quoted as CAGR
†= Ipsos Whitepaper, Oct 2018 ‘The Future of Mobility — Shared Mobility’. Also check out the latest whitepaper ‘The Future of Mobility — Autonomous, electric and shared’.
‡= UX in this case meaning the experience with the app while using it; linkage, ease of navigation, usefulness of features, etc.
¶=Synthesio is an Ipsos company that Brands use to monitor their online presence and surface actionable insights. That means less time searching, and more time strategising. Amplifying any organisation’s human intelligence with Synthesio’s artificial intelligence.
