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France-headquartered ride-sharing platform <keyword id="2401770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BlaBlaCar">BlaBlaCar</keyword>, which entered the Indian market last year, has announced that it would now verify the government IDs for all its members, so that it can improve the safety and security for its rides. 
 
Out of the 22 countries in which the company operates, India is the first market to have such feature introduced for verification of its riders, which was brought in a few weeks ago, based on member feedback. 
 
"India is the first country where we have begun verification of government ID documents, such as the Aadhar card," Raghav Gupta, BlaBlaCar’s India country manager, told <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/in-a-first-blablacar-introduces-verification-in-india-to-ensure-safer-rides/articleshow/53091990.cms">ET</a>. "We took the decision after our members suggested it. The idea is to create a trusted community." 
 
The verification would be a two-step process wherein the company would be verifying the scanned document that users would upload, and the details will be matched with government database using API integration. Verified member profiles will also boost the member's profile, so that they get more requests for individuals looking to travel on the same route as them. 
 
As of now, BlaBlaCar is not making any money in India, but is looking to monetise by the first half of 2017, for which it would charge commissions from co-travellers for the rides. 
 
<a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j3SN5kw9z5U/maxresdefault.jpg">Image source</a>

BlaBlaCar introduces government ID verification for better safety

<keyword id="2401770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BlaBlaCar">BlaBlaCar</keyword>, the global player leading in <keyword id="1741372" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ride-sharing">ride sharing</keyword> services entered India last January and it has already captured a huge segment of the market here. With their presence in 700 cities across the country and having already shared a million seats in the last one year, they are growing at a break neck speed. 
 Entering a market that is already highly competitive with players like <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>, <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword>, Meru and many more carpooling start-ups coming up in the last 2 years, BlaBlaCar plays the game a little bit differently from the others. 
 
“Cheaper service and availability are the main business strategies in India. In Europe we have already made our mark as the cheapest ride sharing service for long distances too, in India it is more about the availability than the price,” said Raghav, India country manager of BlaBla car. 
 
He added that the main challenge is explaining to people what this is, as it is a new concept. But their numbers speak a different truth. During the odd-even rule in Delhi, they had a 65% increase in their services. 
 
“We will start integrating Goverment ID to authentic the identity in the platform soon,” he said.

Exclusive: BlaBlaCar is zooming ahead in India. Clear the way!

You’ll read ‘billion’, ‘unicorn’ and ‘valuation’ in the same sentence more than ever before today, especially when it comes to India’s major online transport businesses – <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ola&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Ola</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Uber</a>. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ola&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Ola</a>, with a valuation of $5 billion has so far raised $1.2 billion from investors. Its biggest rival in India, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Uber&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Uber</a> is the world’s most valuable start-up at $62 billion. The latter announced in July last year it would invest $1 billion in India, and the former has strong investors. 
 India is an important market for <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> with its lucrative market potential, and <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> won’t want to lose on its home turf. While the duo is fighting for dominance of India’s cab business, this means a lot of cash burn. In a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jugnoo-Founder-CEO-Samar-Singla-Willburn-cash-as-long-as-Ola-and-Uber-dont-stop/articleshow/52499393.cms">recent interview</a> with Business Insider, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Jugnoo&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Jugnoo</a> co-founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Samar+Singla&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Samar Singla</a> claimed he’ll do the same as long as Ola and Uber do. It’s refreshingly new to meet someone who won’t. 
 
Business Insider got on an international call with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BlaBlaCar&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BlaBlaCar</a> founder-CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Frederic+Mazzella&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Frederic Mazzella</a> to understand his frugal method of running a transport-based business. 
 
India as a market for <keyword id="2401770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BlaBlaCar">BlaBlaCar</keyword> 
We had an ambition of introducing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ride-sharing&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">ride-sharing</a> in India. More than 1 million Indians have used <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BlaBlaCar&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BaBlaCar</a> in the first 12 months. That’s a real achievement as compared to the 22 other countries we’re in. We want to ensure our product meets the demands of the local people. That’s why we’ve introduced things like government ID proof requirement. 
 
How do you plan to monetize in India? 
We haven’t decided yet. We’ve tried several models in various markets. It can be any of those, or something else. 
 
The most important thing for a service like ours is to reach liquidity. We’re reaching that in India on certain routes. We need to push a bit more to reach real liquidity and then monetize. 
 
Do you have a deadline in mind for India? 
There are no deadlines. We have metrics that show our service is picking up. We’ll do everything we can to finance growth in India, like in every other market we’re in. We’ve never pulled the plug on a country. 
 
India investment plans 
We’ve raised $200 million last summer. We’re using this money very judiciously. 
 
Thanks to things like online marketing we know exactly how much we spend, and we’re very precise in our expenditure to ensure we don’t overspend on anything. 
 
Competition from Ola and Uber 
The reason you haven’t heard of coupons or discount vouchers from us is because we don’t buy growth. We have a community approach versus a pure marketing approach. 
 
When you look at the lifetime spend of a member vs. the cost of acquisition, it’s not sane to spend more than the lifetime value of a user. That’s not sustainable.

We
don’t buy growth: BlaBlaCar Founder-CEO Frederic Mazzella

If there is one concept that can help the odd even days in becoming successful, it’s the way in which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ridesharing">ridesharing </a>platforms connecting private car owners and co-travellers will align themselves with the government formula and function starting January 1. Consider the fact that metros are already running at 80-90% capacity utilization. Extra coaches will be added only by mid 2016 while new DTC buses will be on the streets only by March next year. So with little capacity addition likely to happen to public transport till January, where will the extra crowd compelled to take public transport go? People will of course need alternate modes of transport which are fast, cheap and comfortable. 
 
In such a situation, any system that helps in utilizing vacant seats in the 2.8 million private cars in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=delhi">Delhi </a>would be the best idea. The biggest capacity expansion therefore would be by utilizing these private cars and the way it can happen is through ridesharing or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=carpooling">carpooling</a>. Realizing this fact is Raghav Gupta, India Country Manager of <keyword id="2401770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="BlaBlaCar">BlaBlaCar</keyword> - one of the ridesharing platforms operating in India since January last year - who throws light on how portals like his can contribute to the odd even vehicle rule and the flip side - how the government initiative can prove a great opportunity for them to come into the spotlight. Notably, 1 million seats were offered on BlaBlaCar in the first six months in India suggesting that Indians have taken to ridesharing in a sizeable manner in the last one year. 

	How has BlaBlaCar aligned itself with the <keyword id="6354952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Delhi-Government">Delhi government</keyword>’s odd even vehicle rule?
 Delhi has about 2.8 million private cars as against 80,000 taxis. So, the capacity available in private cars is very large. The way Bla Bla is contributing to the <keyword id="3164660" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Odd-Even-Rule">odd even rule</keyword> is by helping those people who are a part of the 1.4 million cars (that can operate on any given day), to put their empty seats on Bla Bla and take co-travellers plying on the same route along with them. Depending on their number plates, a car owner can select multiple dates in our app on which they would want to share their rides. So we are facilitating an easier and more efficient way of connecting them to co-travellers. 

	Have you thought of others ways to leverage the most out of this win-win situation for you as the new rule will leave several travelers at the mercy of alternate mode of transport, something that will be in favour of your business.
 

	Companies are helping employees in finding ways to travel in the odd even days. What we are doing is getting in touch with them to help them understand how to share rides on BlaBlaCar. Also, we have introduced a widget which can be implemented on the company’s website. Instead of coming to our portal, employees can go to the company website to publish a ride and find co-travellers on the same route. 
 

	Considering <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=carpooling">Ola </a>and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=uber">Uber </a>may be starting carpooling feature too, do you feel it will take away your existing as well as potential members?
 

	What I expect will happen on BlaBlaCar during odd even days will be longer trips like Gurgaon-Noida, Rohini-South Delhi, South Delhi-Faridabad. Per seat it should cost a person no more than Rs 80-100. It’s not expensive, and at the same time would be a comfortable trip. Such commuters will definitely come to BlaBlaCar.
 

	You connect travelers, but do not charge a free. Could you explain how BlaBla Car is benefiting from this ridesharing concept?
 

	BlaBlaCar enables car-owners with empty seats in their cars to share them with co-travellers going the same way and share the cost of the trip. We are present in 20 countries, and have a global member base of 20 million people. In India, we have seen members enrol with us from across 700 cities! At this time, we don’t monetize in India. At a later stage, we will start charging a fee on co-travellers, however, for car owners it is a free service and would continue to be. 
 

	What kind of safety measures do you have to ensure security of both the parties? 
 

	We do some hard and soft verifications, but what works well in India is the rating system. So, when people are travelling with each other, they can rate each other on the experience. Every new person can see how the experience has been of fellow co-travellers with a particular person. Moreover apart from hardchecks, there are social profiles (showing music, interests, hobbies etc) for both the parties to see. So, in a 1-hour long travel, you want to have a comfortable journey. Lot of people with BlaBlaCar now end up travelling with owners who they share interests with and feel comfortable.

Ridesharing platform BlaBlaCar may prove to be one of the best alternative during odd-even car days, here's why!

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Flickr/TechCrunchBlaBlaCar CEO Frederic Mazzella</div></div></div>French ridesharing startup BlaBlaCar<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/blablacar-has-raised-160-million-report-2015-9"> has reportedly raised $160 million</a> (£104 million) in new funding, which brings its valuation to $1.2 billion (£780 million). How could a hitchhiking app be worth so much? Hardly anyone uses it. It has only 2 million monthly active users. For comparison, Whatsapp has 900 million.But some back-of-the-envelope calculations show that BlaBlaCar could actually already be generating surprisingly robust revenues.The model that BlaBlaCar follows is similar to Uber and other ridesharing services, but the way the service works is slightly different.BlaBlaCar riders pay their driver a fee, and <a href="http://tech.eu/features/481/ride-sharing-europe-carpooling-blablacar/">the company takes around a 12% cut</a> from that amount (which is similar to how Uber works). But what's different about the service is that BlaBlaCar doesn't operate within cities - instead it's all about travel between long-distance destinations. Need a ride from Paris to Brussels, but don't want to pay the expensive train or plane fare? BlaBlaCar is your solution.Let's take a look at some of BlaBlaCar's numbers to figure out how much money it's bringing in. BlaBlaCar COO and cofounder Nicolas Brusson<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4260cd4e-7c75-11e4-9a86-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3l3e0RfFw"> told The Financial Times in December</a> that the company has 2 million people who use its services every month. And the company said earlier last year that <a href="https://pando.com/2014/07/01/europes-blablacar-raises-100m-to-take-ride-sharing-long-distance/">the average ride charge was around $25 </a>(£16). Factor in BlaBlaCar's 12% cut and it's bringing in around $72 million (£46.8 million) every year, assuming that its users take one trip every month.Here's the sum:<ul><li>2 million rides</li><li>x $25 each</li><li>x 12 months of the year</li><li>x 12% cut for BlaBlaCar</li><li>= $72 million in revenues </li></ul>We used old, conservative numbers to generate that estimate.An annual revenue of $72 million is no small figure, but if it were recurring annual revenue it would make a one-time investment of $160 million look reasonable. It pales in comparison to <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/uber-revenue-projection-in-2015-2014-11">Uber's predicted revenue figures</a>. Uber is expected to hit an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion (£6.5 billion) by the end of 2015. Uber takes a larger cut than BlaBlaCar, keeping 20% instead of 12%, so it's expected to keep $2 billion (£1.3 billion) of that total. It also does many more rides.BlaBlaCar doesn't yet operate in the US, and doesn't appear to have any plans to head there and compete with Uber. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4260cd4e-7c75-11e4-9a86-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3l3e0RfFw">COO Nicolas Brusson told The Financial Times</a> in a December 2014 interview that "the US is not the best market for us in many ways." Instead, BlaBlaCar is focusing on other international markets like India, Turkey, Brazil, and Russia.It can be tricky for European ridesharing companies to expand to the US and attempt to take on the bigger players. British ridesharing company Hailo expanded to New York in 2013, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hailo-hangs-up-on-u-s-app-driven-taxi-service-1413335668">but ended its operations there in 2014</a>. Hailo's CEO, Jay Bregman,<a href="http://fortune.com/2014/10/14/hailo-taxi-app-funding-failure/"> also departed the company</a> shortly afterwards. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-earths-ice-melted-animated-map-climate-change-2015-7">Here's what the US would look like if all the Earth's ice melted</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Z4dGwzdDrnZunZUB10-CqEUToYnAvsHw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

We figured out how much money new European unicorn BlaBlaCar could be making

US based taxi hailing app <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> would join the likes of BlaBlaCar, Ridingo, Tripda and Meru Cabs with the India launch of its new car pooling product, <keyword id="6591085" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="UberPool">UberPOOL</keyword>, in the coming weeks. <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> will become the first city to experience it, said Uber in a statement. 

	In UberPOOL, users can share a ride and split the cost with another person who just happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. When Uber finds a match, it notifies the user of a co-rider's details.
 "We will launch a beta version for Bengaluru users in the coming weeks. They will join millions of commuters in <keyword id="12161" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="San-Francisco">San Francisco</keyword>, New York City, Boston, Austin and Paris who have been using UberPool for months now," Bhavik Rathod, General Manager at Uber in Bangalore, told ET. 

	"Our vision for UberPOOL means helping solve some of the toughest problems cities are facing today, whether it's congestion, pollution, or lack of access to transportation," he added.
 

	Uber claims that riders in India will be able to save up to 50% while adding only a few minutes of time per trip. 
 

	Nearly half of all Uber rides in San Francisco are pooled rides. Launched in India less than two years ago, Uber is active in 22 Indian cities, even as it faces trouble with authorities in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi for not possessing a license to operate cabs.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Uber to bring its car pooling product UberPOOL to India very soon

Keeping in mind the vast online commuter market, India’s top cab aggregator, <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> is now prepping-up to introduce <keyword id="3071546" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="motorcycle-taxis">motorcycle taxis</keyword>. 
 The Bangalore-based cab aggregator also plans to launch a shuttle bus service. Not just this, but Ola users will now be able to avail <keyword id="3072073" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="car-pooling">car-pooling</keyword> feature on its mobile application, reported The Economic Times. 
 
The motorcycle taxis and shuttle service, however, might face regulatory issues as these do not have any legal frameworks so far. 
 
Internal sources, requesting anonymity, informed that the bike taxis will be on the lines of Indonesia's GoJek, Blue-Jek and Grabbike, which is being used to transport people as well as goods. 
 Another major add-on to the mobile application, <keyword id="3071503" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="OlaShare">OlaShare</keyword>, is being worked-on for quite some time now. The company, however, declined to respond on the email queries by the business daily. 
 
The firm is also in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Ola-Cabs-new-round-of-fund-raising-to-value-it-above-5-billion/articleshow/49072304.cms">advanced stage of closing a financing round</a> of about $500 million (Rs 3,000 crore), which will give a muscle to the firm for its forthcoming plans. 
 The new services, if compared to the other cab-service providers, might give a tough fight to San Francisco-based <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>, which is targeting to enhance its business outside the US with India being one of the most potential markets. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-hopes-to-make-India-its-second-largest-market-sees-Ola-as-competition/articleshow/49087294.cms">(​Uber hopes to make India its second-largest market, sees Ola as competition)</a> 
 
Uber, however, introduced UberPool, its car-pooling service in India, starting with Bengaluru. 
 
Kartik Hosanagar, a professor of technology and digital business at The Wharton School termed the bike-taxi move an interesting one and said, "As of now, it should be seen as an experiment. But one with tremendous potential for Ola... However, the company would have to navigate around regulations." 
 
HeyTaxi, a Mumbai-based motorcycle-taxi company which was launched in June, came under fire from the city's transport department, which has termed the service illegal. 
 A top official at <keyword id="151058" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-Transport-Department">Delhi Transport Department</keyword> said the state was framing a scheme for a motorcycle-taxi service but there were issues to consider. "As of now it will be deemed illegal. We were planning to launch such a service in Delhi but have put it on hold due to safety concerns," he said. Instead, Delhi launched a scheme for renting self-driven motorbikes in August. 
 
Car-pooling services, too, are in a regulator grey zone. Several state governments encourage personal carpooling as a way to lessen traffic and pollution, but as a business, the service is not covered under any legal framework. 
 
Safety is another area of concern, as riders would have to car-pool with strangers. Meru Cabs verifies co-riders with their PAN or Aadhaar numbers while BlaBlaCar mandates a social network account such as Facebook for logging in. 
 
Experts, on the other hand, agreed upon the fact that car-pooling as a business has huge potential. 
Image: thinkstock

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