Taxify, the Estonian competitor to Uber, is making a big push in Africa. While Uber was here first, and aggressively pushed into multiple countries in Africa, their first mover advantage is being eroded quickly by Taxify. This is partly due to the lack of moat for a ride-hailing business like Uber. There’s no real differentiator that Uber provides that another ride-hailing app could not provide. What Uber had was an aggressive culture that pushed hard into new territories, often begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission. However, for multiple reasons that strategy has come back to hurt them. Taxify could let Uber move in quickly and upset the status quo. Uber took a lot of blame for pushing taxis out of business and for cutting prices to a minimum for their drivers. That left a safe opening for Taxify to come in and be the nice guy ride-hailing company. Taxify pays their drivers better commissions, and doesn’t have the regulatory stain that Uber has.
I think competition is good in this market. Drivers should have a choice as to who they drive for, and if Taxify is giving them better rates and the drivers go there that will then push consumers to download the Taxify app. There has to be a good reason for consumers to download a replica app. Taxify is probably struggling with that, which is why they’re also expanding into more cities than Uber. As a traveller, if I know Taxify is somewhere Uber isn’t, I’ll download the app. That means that when I’m back in a city with Uber, I’m just more likely to also open Taxify. It’s a clever acquisition strategy.