Uber, the king of Taxi-Hailing services was supposed to control over the world. Uber Technologies Inc. is aiming to unite its international operations ahead of an initial public offering, with the ride-hailing giant said to be in converse with Middle Eastern startup Careem Networks FZ.
After storming into Russia and China five years ago, Uber withdrew its service from both countries. Furthermore, this year, it announced giving up Southeast Asia. By and large, Uber has successfully surrendered half the world’s potential customers.
Indeed, even in the Middle East, a part of the world not known for its Start-up ability, Uber has failed to dominate. The pioneer there is Dubai based Careem operates 80 cities in 13 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Africa and had a valuation of $1.2 billion as of September. The amount of cash it is raised is not even 3% of Uber’s reserve, but then the company is as yet outpacing the Silicon Valley monster.
In the midst of all these, there is this news gliding that Uber is in chats with Careem for a deal. It is a colossal advance for Uber as Careem is its biggest opponent in the MENA region.
Bloomberg reported that the companies are in fundamental discusses a deal. Options on the table incorporated Uber merging its Middle Eastern activities with Careem in return for Uber taking a majority stake in the company, or on the other hand Uber getting the company outright.
The reason why Uber is contemplating this merger.
The energy over ride-hailing constantly centered on the technology. Radiant new mobile apps which are designed by top mobile app development companies abruptly enabled riders and drivers to pair up quickly and conveniently- and made it workable for anybody to make side income by turning into an escort.
As specified before, it is not the first time that Uber has done something like this. In 2016 Uber sold its services to its most despised opponent in China – Didi Chuxing in a deal worth of $35 billion.
Uber was continually facing a strong challenge from Didi. Didi being the local service had an advantage over Uber and it never enabled Uber to command the market. Uber is also facing an extreme fight from Didi in Brazil, it is the second- best marketplace where Uber has a mammoth 80% of market share.
Apart from China, Uber needed to confront defeat in the South-East Asian nations as well. It had a deal with a Singapore based Taxi Hailing service GRAB. As per this deal, Uber would exit the South-East Asian market in return for 27.5% stake in the GRAB.
Apart from managing these misfortunes, Uber must keep up its predominance in the US which is the most important market of it. Lyft which is a rival of Uber has extended its market share from 15% to 22%. Additionally, the market share for Uber has declined from 83% to 74%.
Also read: How much does it cost to develop a taxi booking app like Uber
Because of these issues, Uber has chosen to focus more on its significant markets which are US, Brazil, few European countries, and India. To the extent, other markets are concerned they are tiring to set up a deal with their rivals to grow their span and to spare themselves from spending millions in the competition.
Uber is thinking about just completing a deal in return for a majority stake or even considering buying Careem outright would propose that however, Careem may be the market pioneer in its region, the margin between the companies may not be that incredible. Careem has raised $571.1 million, Daimler, DCM Ventures and Coatue Management.
Careem has a tremendous strength of in excess of a million drivers. Careem was the first venture to cross 1 billion checks. In this way, more or less Careem is a major deal when it comes to Taxi hailing services in the Middle East.
Conclusion:
The Uber-Careem deal is not concluded yet. Be that as it may, on the off chance that happens then it will have a huge impact on the Taxi Hailing eco-system of MENA region.
In any case, the silver lining is that the merger will cause a void in the MENA region Taxi hailing eco-system. This void would be a humungous open door for the local taxi hailing providers to enter in the field of taxi services.