Startup Model – Ride Sharing

THE MODEL: A ride sharing platform for users in Istanbul. A user can search for and travel with different car owners going on the same route and share the ride costs in the process.

STARTUP: Volt (Turkish startup)

WHAT I LIKE

Core Idea – Ride sharing is a great concept owing to the fact that most cars (nearly 80%) have only the driver in it. It helps save cost and reduces the number of cars on the road.

Win-Win – The owner gets to share the costs of the ride and the passenger gets to travel in the comfort of a car for much less.

Trust – Trust is an issue for car owners especially. The app has built in some features to tackle this – all users have verified phone numbers, all users can see how they are connected with others and who their mutual friends are and also users are not bound and can accept or decline any offer.

CONCERNS

Competition – Taxi apps are also focusing on this sharing concept and have introduced a cab sharing service to offer lower costs to customers.

Regulation – Such a sharing model has some serious safety concerns attached to it and will tend to be regulated in many parts of the world.