Ridesharing company

Yellow Uber car in Moscow
E-commerce
Digital content
Retail goods and services
Online shopping
Mobile commerce
Customer service
E-procurement
Purchase-to-pay
Super-apps

A ridesharing company (or ridehailing service) is a company (or service offered by a company) that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire that, unlike taxis, cannot legally be hailed from the street. The vehicles used in ridesharing/ridehailing service are called app-taxis or e-taxis.

Ridesharing companies were founded after the proliferation of the Internet and mobile apps:[1] Uber was founded in 2009,[2][3] Ola Cabs was founded in 2010, Yandex Taxi was launched in 2011,[4] Sidecar was launched in 2011,[5] Lyft was launched in 2012,[6] DiDi was launched in 2012,[7] Careem began operations in 2012,[8] Bolt was founded in 2013,[9] and Free Now was founded in 2019.[10] In the 2020s, a few companies began offering rides in self-driving taxis.

The legality of ridesharing companies by jurisdiction varies; in some areas they are considered to be illegal taxi operations, while in other areas, they are subject to regulations that can include requirements for driver background checks, fares, caps on the number of drivers in an area, insurance, licensing, and minimum wage.

Studies have shown that ridesharing companies have created net jobs[11] and improved the efficiency of drivers of vehicles for hire due to advanced algorithms that pair riders with drivers.[12] They have been subject to perennial criticism for seeking to classify drivers as independent contractors, enabling them to withhold worker protections that they would have been required to provide to employees.[13][14] Studies have shown that especially in cities where it competes with public transport, ridesharing contributes to traffic congestion, reduces public transport use, has no substantial impact on vehicle ownership, and increases automobile dependency.[15][16][17]

  1. ^ Chan, Nelson D.; Shaheen, Susan A. (November 4, 2011). "Ridesharing in North America: Past, Present, and Future" (PDF). University of California, Berkeley. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 4, 2014.
  2. ^ Scott, Alec (November 19, 2015). "Co-founding Uber made Calgary-born Garrett Camp a billionaire". Canadian Business. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020.
  3. ^ Shontell, Alyson (January 11, 2014). "All Hail the Uber Man! How Sharp-Elbowed Salesman Travis Kalanick Became Silicon Valley's Newest Star". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  4. ^ "Yandex Launches Taxi Search Service" (Press release). Yandex. October 26, 2011.
  5. ^ Said, Carolyn (December 29, 2015). "Ride-sharing pioneer Sidecar to shut down ride, delivery service". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020.
  6. ^ Farr, Christina (May 23, 2013). "Lyft team gets $60M more; now it must prove ride-sharing can go global". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on July 27, 2017.
  7. ^ "Didi Kuaidi". Tech in Asia. September 8, 2015. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015.
  8. ^ Bashir, Omer (February 15, 2016). "Uber-clone vows safe, affordable ride. Should you Careem around Karachi, Lahore?". Dawn.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020.
  9. ^ McKeever, Vicky. "How a college dropout became Europe's youngest founder of a billion-dollar company". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 26, 2022.
  10. ^ Dillet, Romain (February 22, 2019). "Daimler and BMW invest $1.1 billion in urban mobility services". TechCrunch.
  11. ^ Gaskell, Adi (January 26, 2017). "Study Explores The Impact Of Uber On The Taxi Industry". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 19, 2022.
  12. ^ Cramer, Judd; Krueger, Alan B. (May 2016). "Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber". American Economic Review. 106 (5). doi:10.3386/w22083.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference BI congestion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ congestion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Verge congestion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).