Reports Indicate Hailo Looking To Expand Into Asia

By: Talha Bhatti  |   February 6th, 2013   |   Business, Mobile Apps, News

The startup world is full of competitors trying their best to become the biggest player in their sector. The car services segment Uber and European counterpart Hailo started going up against each other when the former entered the US market. Hailo had successfully expanded its operations in most major European cities including London and Dublin before it hopped across the pond. According to articles from TechCrunch and AllthingsD the startup is now looking to move towards Asia and setup operations in major cities there. Hailo gained $30 million dollars in their latest funding round that was led by investors like Union Square Ventures, KDDI from Japan and Richard Branson. The fresh influx of cash will be used to mobilize operations in Asia similar to a move into the US that was funded by a $17 million dollar raise in March of 2012.

 

Hailo got started in 2010 and currently has 85 employees. The service claims that 10,000 drivers are utilizing the service around the world and the startup has been able to help more than a million passengers. Currently Hailo has services inm major cities like Dublin, London, Chicago, Toronto and Boston while major metropolises like New York, Madrid, Barcelona and Tokyo are on the cards.

 

Hailo has a pretty straight forward premise and lets users download an app for their phone which can then be used to order a taxi. This is quite similar to Uber except that Hailo signs up Taxi cabs and not sedan services. Uber’s choice of sedan is usually more expensive than  what Hailo offers. Seeing this problem, Uber has also started to get into the taxi service business and is currently tested a service in Washington DC during the presidential inauguration.

 

Uber ran into into problems with regulators when they first launched in many cities including California. However, with time the authorities have started to take a more lenient stance on the issue. This will help mobile app based taxi and car services to flourish in the US. Uber should be able to expand into cities a lot faster than it had previously planned but competitor Hailo will also be hot on its heels. The sector is seeing a lot of competition lately and newer entrants in to the sector include Flywheel, Taxi Magic and CanCents. Competition will be good for the sector and help improve overall services while reducing prices which will benefit consumers. Drivers should also see advantages as more and more users start using the different services available.

Source: Nibletz