BlaBlaCar on an expansion course
With BeepCar, BlaBlaCar has swallowed its key Russian competitor , which should boost its growth in what is currently the strongest carpool market - Russia . It is not the first purchase for BlaBlaCar this year, as early as May, the carpooling company had bought French competitor Less . The complete redirection of BeepCar traffic to BlaBlaCar will take place as early as autumn 2018 . This was announced by BlaBlaCar in early August. The Mail.ru Group seems to be putting off the ride-in business, focusing instead on larger lines of business such as delivery and taxi services , classifieds and cross-border trade. BlaBlaCar has been active in Russia since 2014 . It is the largest market of the company with over 15 million members .
Synergies between BlaBlaCar and Mail.ru
The two companies will jointly expand their marketing activities. For example, BlaBlaCar intends to use the Mail.ru platforms for additional advertising in the future. This uses the access to the Russian market , which has its peculiarities. BlaBlaCar is a typical Western European company or rather a brand of the Paris Comuto SA and is now active in 22 countries . Worldwide, 65 million members use the BlaBlaCar app , a German branch is in Hamburg. The business model allows users to take other members in their own car or to search for a ride . In the meantime, BlaBlaCar is the largest provider of this kind in Europe. The business model is assigned to the Share Economy . It combines two functions: a social network and a travel search engine . The operation is simple, registered users offer free seats as drivers, interested riders then take contact with the driver and pay when traveling along a cost sharing. Prices are capped: drivers are not allowed to make a profit .
