When a small and young start-up born in 2010-Hailo-manages to find $20 Millionin investment in less than 2 years after it has been trading,you begin to understand that behind this are a magical combinationof factors that have

made the success of others small start- ups in the past: a good and usable idea, a need in the market and viral

expansion –in this case in the form of a mobile App.

The following report looks at the evolution happening in the world of mobile applications built

to find and book cabs directly froms martphones.

According to Phil Makinson- CEO at Kabbee, the market is estimated to be worth £3bn in London

alone.

The market is represented by a myriad of cab services around the city of London: from the classic and

iconic blac k cabs, to the private mini cab,to other established and independent companies like Addison

Lee.

The development and attention of the vibrant and new start-up scene of the British capital doesn’t seem to end according to the results of the last Wazoku“Digital London Startup Prize†assigned to ubiCabs

.

The scope of this analysis is to look at the variety of smartphone applications that have been

built in order to meet this demand and to exploit the clear opportunity offered by the market.

The evaluation has been based on the iPhone o nly and we have used for this the latest

version available from the Apple store.

The analysis was conducted between the second and the last week of May 2012?

.

© Spotless Interactive, Unit D2, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4HJ | Spotless Interactive Ltd is a registered company. Company number: 05176813.

1.1

The applications tested The rationale behind the choice of which applications

to include in the following analysis had to be based on a series of parameters. The following

criteria were chosen:?

The App has to be free?It has to be London based?

It should be fairly popular This last condition represents the real challenge,since no official figures

are given by Apple about the number of downloads per application. Here we have done some research,

taking into account number of ratings for the latest version of the App and its overall score as reported

from the App Store. Based on the information collectd we have generated thefollowing list:The rationale for this narrowed-down choice is to get the chance to build-up a benchmark

evaluation that will then be used for future references and studies.

Thiswillalsoapplytoother criteria of inclusion (price of the apporitsgeographical area of reference) allowing this

analysis to have a wider breath.

The six applications included in this report are therefore the following:

Taxi apps gain pace as second wave of funding fuels competition By Henry Mance

Two rivals to taxi app Hailo have received fresh venture

capital backing, as part of a second wave of fundraising for

taxi apps that heralds greater competition for drivers and

customers in the world’s largest cities.

GetTaxi, an Israeli start-up, and Easy Taxi, part of

Germany’s

Rocket Internet clone factory

, have received

$12m and $10m, respectively, in new financing in the past

fortnight. Like Hailo, which received new funding in February, both apps allow users to order a

registered taxi from their smartphone.

Since launching in 2011, taxi apps have become popular in big cities such as New York and London,

but investors participating in the latest round of fundraising says no clear winner has emerged yet

and there are many markets that are still up for grabs.

“What’s interesting about this market is it’s very large and there’s real disruption though mobile

platforms and geolocation,†said Philippe Botteri of Accel Partners, which has invested in Hailo.

The need to sign up drivers meant that “on a city-basis it is a winner-takes-all market†, Mr Botteri

said.

GetTaxi, Hailo and Easy Taxi have now each raised at least $40m to date, highlighting venture

capitalists’ enthusiasm for transport start-ups. While Easy Taxi has leapt straight to emerging

markets, GetTaxi is following

Hailo by expanding to New York

.

“Right now it’s the fight for the most lucrative taxi markets,†said Shahar Waiser, the chief

executive of GetTaxi, which claims annualised revenues of around $60m and profitability in 16 of

the 20 cities in which it operates.

Further fundraising is expected in the sector, with chauffeur service Uber saying it is seeking

“hundreds of millions†of dollars to launch in China and elsewhere.

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The rise of mobile taxi apps has damaged revenues at radio taxi firms, and led some observers to

suggest possible market saturation.

“It’s a competitive market, because people have this wrong idea that there are low barriers to

entry,†said Sacha Poignonnec, co-chief executive of African Internet Holding, which backs Easy

Taxi.

“The barriers are to build a strong relationship with the customers, through the taxi drivers.â€

Easy Taxi, which operates in Latin America and Asia, will now open in some cities in Africa and the

Middle East.

In bid to differentiate itself, GetTaxi has pitched itself to corporate clients, signing up Goldman

Sachs, Deloitte and Google.

Meanwhile, Uber, which is seeking a multibillion-dollar valuation from investors despite facing

regulatory roadblocks in several markets, could integrate delivery into its service.

“Uber gets the bigger picture,†said Anthony Mullen, an analyst at Forrester Research. “You might

well see a merging of carrying passengers and dispatch services.â€

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