In a wave of entrepreneurship in the early 2010s, in which every industry was to be transformed through the deployment of technology, Uber and Lyft were born.
The two companies are a product of the terrible taxicab ecosystem which existed in California before 2010. People could order cabs over the phone or on the internet, but operators would dispatch them based on their position in the queue, meaning someone could be waiting an hour for the cab to arrive from the other side of town. And if the cab saw a fare on the street, they were under no obligation to complete the booked ride.
In Uber’s case especially, the app was designed to make ordering a taxi far more reliable. Lyft retuned its service a bit later to compete against Uber, it was originally conceived as a long-distance carpooling service. In China, Cheng Wei was formulating a similar idea, after spending several years working in Alibaba’s payments division. Recognising the opportunity to build a secure payments system for taxi drivers, he launched Didi Dache. Cheng Wen and Joe Lee would launch a similar service in Hangzhou, called Kuaidi Dache.
Uber, driven by its then CEO Travis Kalanick, quickly expanded to Europe and Asia. Funded by a collective of venture capitalists eager to see ride hailing become the next big technology sector, Uber spent billions every year to compete in almost every market. This reached its peak in 2015, when Uber announced it was spending $1 billion every year to compete in China. As the threat of Uber China grew, Didi and Kuaidi, backed by Tencent and Alibaba respectively, merged.
The combined force was too large for Uber to fight, and the company bowed out of the country in 2016, selling its Chinese division to Didi for $35 billion and 17 percent of Didi Kuaidi, which has since been diluted to under 15 percent. Even with the loss of China, Uber remained the largest ride hailing platform on the planet. Didi would scoop up several smaller operators, and is today responsible for over 95 percent of all mobile taxi operations in China.
The only serious hiccup, which affected both Uber and Didi, has been driver safety. For Uber, this came in the form of several sexual harassment claims against Uber executives in 2017 and 2018, which then spread to stories about Uber not properly dealing with harassment claims by female riders. Similar accusations were published in China in 2018, after two women were killed by their Didi’s Hitch drivers, leading to a suspension of the service. In both cases, Uber and Didi have reshuffled their internal teams and added safety features and systems to report drivers.
The coronavirus pandemic was detrimental to ride hailing operators, in some countries there has been a 90 percent downturn in usage. Some apps have been unable to reach the levels of usage and spending they were hitting in 2019, but Uber reported a return to growth in early 2022.
We have collected data and statistics on taxi apps. Read on below to find out more.
Top Taxi Apps
| Title 1 | Title 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/uber-statistics/ | Uber | The leader in ride hailing, operating in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia |
| https://www.businessofapps.com/data/lyft-statistics/ | Lyft | Uber’s competitor in North America, responsible for about 20 percent of US ride hailing |
| https://bolt.eu/en-gb/ | Bolt | Estonian operator currently active in 35 countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East |
| https://cabify.com/ | Cabify | Leader in the South American market and also active in Spain and Portugal |
| https://www.free-now.com/ | Free Now | An amalgamation of several ride hailing services, owned by Daimler and BMW |
| https://www.gett.com/ | Gett | Instead of using gig-workers, Gett connects drivers to licensed black cabs in Europe |
| https://web.didiglobal.com/ | DiDi | After merging and acquiring its main competitors, Didi Chuxing is the largest operator in China |
| https://www.olacabs.com/mobile | Ola Cabs | India’s competitor to Uber, responsible for about 50 percent of all rides in the country |
| https://www.grab.com/sg/ | Grab | Singaporean transportation giant Grab operates a ride hailing service in Southeast Asia |
| https://www.gojek.com/en-id/ | Gojek | Another Southeast Asian operator which is positioning itself as a super app |
Taxi App Market Size
The market size estimate takes into consideration revenue for drivers and the app operators, which take between five and 25 percent of all fares as commission.
Taxi App Market Size 2016 to 2022 ($bn)
Taxi App Projected Market Size
The taxi app market size is expected to be $283 billion by 2028, at a 4.2% compound annual growth rate during the period between 2023 to 2028.
Taxi App Projected Market Size 2023 to 2028 ($bn)
Taxi Revenue by App
Even with the regulatory issues it faced in 2022, DiDi still made the most revenue of any taxi app, at approximately $19.7 billion. Uber came in second place, with its mobility segment generating $14 billion. There’s a large fall off after those two giants.
Taxi Revenue by App 2022 ($bn)
| App | Revenue ($bn) |
|---|---|
| Didi | 19.7 |
| Uber | 14 |
| Lyft | 4.09 |
| Bolt | 1.08 |
| Cabify | 0.68 |
| Grab | 0.63 |
| Ola Cabs | 0.17 |
Taxi App Users
Over 300 million people use taxi apps in the world, with DiDi and Uber responsible for about 150 million of those users. The industry had a major dip in 2020, losing over 100 million active users due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Taxi App Annual Users 2016 to 2022 (mm)
Taxi App Market Share US
Uber had a commanding lead in the US market until 2018, when harassment charges against the then-CEO Travis Kalanick, alongside general driver unhappiness, led to a boycott as some users shifted to Lyft. It has regained footing, with a 76% market share in 2022.
Taxi App Market Share United States 2015 to 2022 (%)
Taxi App Market Share UK
Uber has been the leader in the UK since it launched, with others playing catchup. The only notable competitor is Bolt, which has made some headway in London.
Taxi App Market Share United Kingdom 2018 to 2022 (%)
Taxi App Market Share India
Uber and Ola Cabs have been stuck in a two horse race for several years, with Uber closing the gap between them. Meru Cabs and Rapido have been making headway in the past few years though.
Taxi App Market Share India 2016 to 2022 (%)
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