InDriver, an international online ride-hailing service headquartered in New York has today launched in Nigeria’s commercial city, Lagos after years of observing the viability of the market.
Africa’s most populous nation would be one of the five countries on the continent in which inDriver is having its footprint after the firm first launched in Tanzania around November last year. South Africa, Nairobi and Uganda are the other markets inDriver currently operates in.
The firm promises to deploy innovative strategies that would make the ride-hailing platform convenient by enabling users to independently set the prices for their trip, while drivers can choose the most profitable and convenient orders.
“Until today, taxi services in Nigeria did not leave any choice for local residents when it came to the cost of the trip as users were only offered to agree to the price specified in the application or on the taxi counter,” said Egor Fedorov, Chief Marketing Officer, inDriver.
“inDriver came to change this situation. We want customers and drivers to independently and directly determine the fair and favourable price of each trip. Already today, residents of Lagos, using inDriver, will be able to make sure that the cost of travel can be significantly lower than the usual prices,” Fedorov said in a statement.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy with a population of over 200 million, growing at an annual rate of 2.6 percent. Lagos is known to be Nigeria’s commercial hub and the fifth largest economy in Africa with a market that is more than four times its West African neighbour, Ghana.
As the biggest economy in the continent, ridehailing firms are increasingly expanding their operations into the West African nation to tap into the country’s increasing population that has been projected by the United Nations to reach 400 million by 2030, a figure which would see Nigeria become the third populous country globally.
The ride-hailing business has seen increasing competition after American multinational transportation network, Uber, in July 2014 became the first to launch the innovative on-demand private driver application. Taxify followed suit and launched in 2016 while inDriver has joined the league.
Since 2016, Uber has faced intense competition from rival firm Taxify both of which has fought to control a larger part of the market. Taxify has expanded operations into Benin, Ibadan, Owerri and Abuja, while Uber is currently in only two cities in the country Lagos and Abuja.
However, unlike both firms inDriver allows passengers to set their fare for their chosen route. Nearby drivers who receive notice of ride requests have three choices – accept the fare offered, ignore the offer or bargain for a higher price.
Another unique feature is that drivers are not automatically assigned to riders. Once the counteroffers are in, passengers select the most suitable driver in line with what categories are most important to them – fare, driver rating, estimated time of arrival or vehicle model.
According to the firm, the app has the option to make the rides safer as passengers can share their GPS location and ride details in real-time from the app with trusted contacts. “The app’s real-time deals model combats algorithms used by other ride-hailing companies, which rack up prices because of peak hours, traffic and request history,” the firm said
Operating in over 200 cities across 25 countries, the firm has about 26 million users under its platforms with about 300 million rides.
For Nigeria, Lagos is the first city in Nigeria where inDriver has been launched as the company continually find better ways to explore in the market. Since entering the market, the firm has connected more than 6,000 drivers in Lagos, and dozens of new drivers are being registered daily, the firm said. At the initial stage after the start, inDriver will not charge drivers any commission.
Travelling with inDriver can be done throughout Lagos’s city borders, the company said currently; one can pay for the ride only in cash, which allows to further reduce the cost of the trip, as paying by card would increase cost through bank charges.
The firm noted that it has been working in Lagos in test mode to collect first feedback. This week showed that prices became more attractive to passengers. Passengers using the app pay on average 20 percent less than with other services. For example, for a ride from Victoria Island to Elegushi Royal Beach Lekki, users paid just NGN 1100, from Shoprite Circle Mall to Chevron Drive Lekki NGN 400.
In 2018 the firm raised about $10 million Series B funding to complement the $5 million Series A round that it raised in 2015 from Russian venture fund LETA Capital. Proceeds from the funding were used to expand operations into India, the USA and Canada, where it competed with Uber, Lyft and Ola Cab.
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