This is one of the initiatives made by smaller players in the sector to compete with SA’s two largest operators.
US-based Uber and Estonia’s Bolt are both international and have deep pockets. In August 2021, Bolt was valued at about $4.75bn after its most recent funding round, while publicly traded Uber is worth $58.2bn. However, Didi, worth $7bn, failed to make inroads locally. The company shut its SA operations in April last year after just a year in the market. While China’s largest e-hailing service did not disclose its reasons for leaving SA, it makes sense that the venture had not yielded enough to stay, especially as the company had seen SA as its launch pad for operations across the continent.
“The industry is quite tough to be honest. It’s one of those markets where you have to assess the demands and the needs. Things fluctuate and there’s seasonality.“Being able to stay in this market for this long is really an achievement for us. We’ve put together a strong team and research to be on par with our peers.”
In SA, where unemployment tops 33% of the employable population and close to 2-million jobs have been shed in the past two years, freelance or “gig economy” work, such as ride hailing and food delivery, has become a lifeline for many.
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