Well, it looks like the carpooling race in Europe continues. BlaBlaCar, the European carpooling marketplace and competitor to Carpooling.com, has announced that it’s reached the milestone of 3 million members, almost double from this time last year. It’s also expanding to Germany, giving testimony to being a truly pan-European player.
In January last year, the Paris-headquartered company raised an additional $10 million from Accel Partners and existing investors ISAI, and Cabiedes & Partners, specifically for European expansion. Since then its carpooling communities have extended beyond the UK, France and Spain, to include Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Poland, Portugal, Italy (via an acquisition), and now Germany, of course.
The launch into Germany, including opening an office in Hamburg, also puts the heat on ten year-old Carpooling.com, which is based in neighboring Munich and targets most of Europe, including 7 language-specific websites. In comparison, Carpooling.com claims 4 million members.
Founded in 2006, BlaBlaCar taps into the collaborative consumption phenomenon — long before anybody called it that — by offering a carpooling or ridesharing marketplace to connect drivers with empty seats and paying passengers, helping to offset long distance travel costs.
Drivers can charge passengers through BlaBlaCar or directly, while there are a number of security mechanisms, such as phone number authentication and user ratings of members, which form the basis for being blacklisted, if necessary. In other words, along with the network and marketplace aspects, it’s building a trust platform.
Accessible on the web and via mobile apps, BlaBlaCar says it’s currently seeing around 500,000 passengers every month.
BlaBlaCar is a car sharing website that connects drivers with empty seats and paying passengers to offset distance travel costs. It has created a new, affordable and sustainable way to travel, currently used by more than 500,000 passengers every month. BlaBlaCar’s 3m-member community offers thousands of destinations across Europe every day. Backed by Accel Partners and ISAI, it operates in ten countries across Europe, and is based in Paris with offices in London, Madrid, Milan, Hamburg and Warsaw. The site...
? Learn more carpooling.com is the No. 1 Ride Sharing Network in Europe, moving over 1 million people each month. carpooling.com offers reliable ride sharing opportunities that are affordable and easy to access by computer, mobile phone or social network. People can choose who they want to ride with, how much space and comfort they need, where they want to meet and what they are willing to pay. People can also book and pay online for even more convenience and safety. carpooling.com...
? Learn more jQuery(function() { jQuery("#tabs-crunchbase").tabs(); });
No comments:
Post a Comment