Skip to main content

Ridesharing market attracts investors in Europe and North America

Investors are racing to claim a stake in the potential multibillion-dollar ridesharing market. Advances in Technology that aid in the adoption of ridesharing, while governmental policy support, such as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and toll-fee waivers, are bolstering market evolution, says Frost and Sullivan. The North American and European ridesharing market will see strong growth, with rideshare operators rolling out new business models to target niche customer segments. And in the European marke
December 16, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
Investors are racing to claim a stake in the potential multibillion-dollar ridesharing market. Advances in Technology that aid in the adoption of ridesharing, while governmental policy support, such as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and toll-fee waivers, are bolstering market evolution, says Frost and Sullivan.

The North American and European ridesharing market will see strong growth, with rideshare operators rolling out new business models to target niche customer segments. And in the European market a fixed ridesharing is expected to dominate by 2025, although dynamic ridesharing is also picking up pace.

2097 Frost & Sullivan’s Automotive & Transportation Growth Partnership Service program, which offers, among other things insights into powertrains, carsharing and smart mobility management has recently released two analyses of ridesharing,  North American Ridesharing Market Opportunities and  European Ridesharing Market Opportunities

“Ridesharing has emerged as a smart, clean and powerful tool to deal with the fallouts of urbanisation and the development of mega cities,” said Mobility Research Analyst Albert Geraldine Priya. “Ridesharing can reduce the number of cars needed on urban roads globally by up to 2.49 million vehicles, decrease vehicle kilometres travelled by 40.19 billion and lower the corresponding end-of-life (EOL) emissions by 15.9 megatons.”

As business models continue to evolve in this new market, the most popular ones like RidewithVia and Matchrider combine the benefits of ridesharing and taxi hailing activity in this space, vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are interested in partnering with or in investing in ridesharing ventures. Some prominent deals in the ridesharing market include BMW’s investment in Scoop, GM’s investment in Flinc and Daimler’s investment in Via. Technology companies have also joined in Facebook, for example, recently announced plans to add a ridesharing option to its events page.

In Europe, France is the biggest market for ridesharing, holding almost 26 per cent of it though this spot may well be relinquished   to Germany by 2025.  Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain together make up 85 per cent of the ridesharing market.

The largest player in France is BlaBlaCar, serving almost 10 per cent of the population. New dynamic ridesharing operators like Heetch, Karos, Citygoo are testing the waters in major countries like France and Germany only. With support from local governments other players such as Carma are also expanding their presence.

Corporate ridesharing is the most popular in the UK. The country boasts major corporate ridesharing players like Liftshare and Faxi. Corporate ridesharing is also picking up in  other countries with players such as  Wayzup and Twogo offering customised solutions to corporate.

However, large sections of prospective users are still relatively unaware of the ridesharing concept or the actual differences between ridesharing, hailing and carsharing.

“Nevertheless, the growing synergies among various ridesharing stakeholders will bring about a sea change in the shared mobility ecosystem,” noted Priya. “Ridesharing is expected to become a mainstream mode of mobility in cities by 2025 and is likely to expand to include different models on the same platform. Autonomous vehicles are expected to disrupt ridesharing models by merging ‘self-driven’ and ‘to-drive’ options beyond 2025.”

Related Content

  • July 21, 2015
    Imaging technologies to reduce driver distraction ‘expected to gain traction by 2020’
    Frost and Sullivan’s latest report indicates that following a series of high-technology head up display (HUD) roll-outs, the automotive industry appears keen to adopt the imaging technology with the widest field of view (FOV) of up to 12 degrees x 5 degrees. Another HUD product feature to improve considerably is the brightness of virtual images, which increased up to 15000cd/m², even with lower power consumption. Digital light processing (DLP) and laser display are emerging as compelling alternatives to the
  • July 19, 2012
    Economic stimulus packages - shift in emphasis on exit strategies
    Jack Short of the International Transport Forum discusses the role of stimulus finding and the path in and out of recession. The US Government has grabbed many headlines with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), its response to the need to do something to prevent stagnation in the face of the recent economic downturn.
  • August 30, 2017
    Automotive AI market predicted to grow by nearly 40 per cent by 2025
    According to the new market research report from MarketsandMarkets, the automotive artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to be valued at USD 782.9 Million in 2017 and is expected to reach US$10,573.3 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 38.46 per cent between 2017 and 2025. The report indicates that emergence of autonomous vehicle and industry-wide standards such as the adaptive cruise control (ACC), blind spot alert and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) would trigger the growth of the automotive
  • July 27, 2012
    Daimler investing carpooling company
    Daimler AG is investing in carpooling.com GmbH which claims to be the world's leading ridesharing network, transporting one million people a month across Europe. The platform is available on the Internet, on smartphone apps and Facebook. The company claims it has experience globally in bringing together ride-sharers for both medium- and long-distance trips, as well as for commuting. By reviewing profiles and ratings users know exactly who they are traveling with. In addition to rides, the company's platform