Page 5 - bne_Tech_0809_2018

Leaders
August/September 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
French car share BlaBlaCar buys Russian rival BeepCar of Mail.ru
French online car pooling service BlaBlaCar will acquire its rival in Russia BeepCar owned by internet services major Mail.ru Group, Kommer- sant daily reported citing the announcement of the companies. The deal will start a partnership under which BlaBlaCar will be promoted across Mail.ru platforms.
Car pooling is an emerging segment in Russia's rapidly growing digitally-enhanced transportation market. Boosted by the economic crisis, BlaBlaC- ar wants to modernize travelling in Russia. The French intercity online car sharing comes to Rus- sia's regions. Mail.ru and taxi-aggregator Vezyot have recently concluded a convertible loan agree- ment in preparation for a new investment round.
Earlier in 2018 Mail.Ru Group along with MegaFon mobile major invested in taxi-aggregator CityMo- bil, with Mail.ru purchasing 26% for $12mn.
Sberbank CIB expects the car-pooling market
in Russia to expand by RUB377bn by 2025, as it will compete with traditional public transportation and by RUB474bn by replacing personal transportation. The total car sharing and taxi market in 2017-2025 is seen growing 2.5-fold to RUB1.6 trillion.
BlaBlaCar plans to double the activity in Russia after the acquisition of BeepCar, according to the CE of BlaBlaCar Nicholas Brusson. An estimated number of users in Russia for the French com- pany stands at 15mn users out of 65mn globally.
BeepCar had 2mn registered users as of end of 2017 and had over 5mn app downloads on iOs and Android devices.
Yandex also wants to compete in the car pooling market with its pilot Yandex.Poputka app launched in the beginning of 2018 in Krasnoyarsk and Rostov-on-Don, with about 10,000 downloads in Google Play.
The analysts were sceptical of Mail.ru taxi market ambitions given the given the considerable first- mover advantage given the first-mover advantage of rival Yandex whose Yandex.Taxi service closed a mega-deal with Uber in Russia and CIS.
Another rival on the market online taxi booking service Gett said in June it raised extra $80mn for operations in Russia from Access Industries of Leonid Blavatnik, Baring Vostok, MCI, and Volkswagen Group among the investors.