16 fév 17
Fil d'Actus

Daimler’s MyTaxi acquires Taxibeat in Greece

Taxibeat and MyTaxi

German e-taxi company MyTaxi has aquired Taxibeat, which provides a similar service in Greece. This puts the company, founded in 2009 and acquired by Daimler in 2014, in a better position to attack Uber's dominance of the ride-hailing market in Europe. 

MyTaxi claims 10 million downloads across 50 European cities, and has 100,000 registered drivers. In the summer of last year, it merged with UK e-hailing specialist Hailo. Taxibeat, founded in 2011, operates in Greece and – surprisingly – also in Peru. It has around 500,000 riders and 8,000 drivers. 

The plan is to completely integrate Taxibeat into MyTaxi, effectively making Greece the tenth market in which the Daimler daughter operates. 

“The acquisition is another strategic step in making MyTaxi the biggest, best and most loved taxi provider in Europe”, says MyTaxi CEO Andrew Pinnington. That puts the company squarely up against Uber, the dominant player in the e-taxi space across many markets, both worldwide and in Europe. 

It remains to be seen whether those markets will tend towards consolidation – playing in the favour of Uber – or competition – favouring MyTaxi and a host of other, often very local players. 

Image: MyTaxi

Authored by: Frank Jacobs