

Ask HN: Ideas for Building Critical Mass for Taxi Sharing App - alooPotato

Hi HN - I'm working on a side project (also writing a paper on it for class) to help users share taxi rides to save money/time. It lets users enter their trip information ahead of time and matches users with others who have similar trips (they can also chat and see each other on the map to help find each other). It is a mobile app (iOS now, more later) with app engine on the backend.<p>Of course, the utility of such an app is highly dependent on the number of users using it (a common problem in web businesses).<p>I have a shortlist of ideas to help build this critical mass but would love some feedback/ideas from HN users.<p>1) Look for high travel density areas (high number of taxi departures) and market specifically there. Some examples would be getting airports, hotels, campuses, etc to help market the app (value for them is it reduces congestion is a useful service for their customers).<p>2) Partner with environmental groups or student clubs to get small armies to market directly to users (goto airport taxi stand lines helping to match users and asking them to get the app)<p>3) Since this app is about saving users money, one way to encourage usage is to simulate this benefit until there is a critical mass of users. The idea here would be that if you tell us about your trip at least 24 hours in advance and we can't find you a match then we will credit your account with $X. Once you reach $Y, we send you a coupon for a free taxi ride. THis obviously has the potential to be very expensive and a target for abuse so both would have to be mitigated.<p>4) Viral distribution - push a users trips to their social network to match them with friends with similar trips. While an obvious feature, it doesn't seem likely to work as this probably already happens informally and you need a large number of users to actually find a match.<p>5) One potential way to monetize this app is to charge a lead gen fee to cab/limo companies. However, we could pass value onto end consumers as a discount on their ride. The idea would be that if you use the app to find a match and book a cab with us, you get a discounted fair (because we sell the lead to a cab company in exchange for you getting a lower fare).<p>I realize these aren't necessarily scalable marketing ideas, but they do have the benefit of being localized to specific geo areas. This is important as you'd rather have your users in concentrated clusters to improve matching.<p>I'm not as concerned with monetizing the app (I built it because I want to use it), but ideas here are welcome.<p>Also, I have a prototype built. If there is interest I can record a screencast demo if anyone wants to see it...
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OmarIsmail
This is what I would call a "micro-groupon". Essentially you have a shareable
service that becomes cheaper the more people use it. The time scales are also
different since it's more of a "flash" sale than anything.

The one way that people break out of the chicken and egg situation is by using
the "Bowling pin strategy" (more info here <http://edgehopper.com/>). So you
start with one niche and then scale out intelligently from there. Again, this
is what Groupon did by starting in SF and then growing from there.

Based on this my advice would be to start in SF - as they seem to be the early
adopters of the world. From my experience there finding a cab is a major pain
in the ass. However, the times that you'd use this service are when you're
taking a pretty expensive cab ride, usually from the airport. With SF how many
people take cabs from the airport vs the BART? If it's not a lot, then you
have some difficulty.

Is there a city in the world that has a lot of people taking cabs from the
airport?

Actually, now that I think about it. Any "route" where a sufficiently large
number of people would regularly be paying a substantial cab fare would almost
certainly have an alternative means of transportation. Whether this be public
transportation, shuttle services, etc. More often than not I think you'd find
that society at large has already implemented your taxi sharing.

In which case you need to identify those very specific places where the market
is lagging behind and therefore your app has real utility there. At which
point you'd have to aggressively market your app in those markets to gain real
penetration and hope for critical mass.

To be honest, the use case is so limited I have a difficult time seeing how
you'd get that critical mass.

Though your idea has given me another idea. An app that lets taxi drivers
schedule with individuals directly. How many times do you take a taxi where
the driver will give you their card and say "Give me a call if you want a
ride?" Well, if you have an app that connects drivers with riders in an easy
fashion, then you can get into a situation where everybody's incentives are
aligned. You can get the driver to give the rider a discount, the driver does
this for guaranteed income, the rider does it for the discount, and you do it
because you get a small cut. You can then expand into a "group ride" policy
because your already having a person plan out their route.

~~~
alooPotato
_The one way that people break out of the chicken and egg situation is by
using the "Bowling pin strategy" (more info here<http://edgehopper.com/>). So
you start with one niche and then scale out intelligently from there. Again,
this is what Groupon did by starting in SF and then growing from there._

Sorry I was unclear - all 5 of the ideas were meant to be implemented in
specific locales then expanding.

 _Is there a city in the world that has a lot of people taking cabs from the
airport?_

Every airport that I frequent regularly has this problem: Boston, NYC (x3), SF
and Toronto. I think this would not be useful in some of the developing
countries. I'd be willing to bet this would be useful for any airport where 1)
there is a significant metropolitan core in a small constrained geographic
area and 2) Where labor costs are high enough that the majority of the cost of
the cab comes from driver wages/compensation.

 _Actually, now that I think about it. Any "route" where a sufficiently large
number of people would regularly be paying a substantial cab fare would almost
certainly have an alternative means of transportation. Whether this be public
transportation, shuttle services, etc. More often than not I think you'd find
that society at large has already implemented your taxi sharing._

Agreed but every mode of transport has a cost/convenience tradeoff. Public
transit is generally cheap but takes some time. Single occupancy cabs are at
the other end of the spectrum. And if you plotted every mode I don't believe
the curve would be linear. Take for example shuttle services that are common
in the US, specifically one from Boston airport to MIT. They typically serve
~8 passengers and cost roughly $20/person in my experience. This is fairly
expensive relative to a cab that shares a ~$35 cab ride even among just two
people. At $17.5/person it is much much faster to get to your destination in
this method. There seems to be a sweet spot served by shared taxis
specifically.

The above is just for airports - another environment where this may work is in
dense urban environments for short trips. I'm picturing going crosstown in
Manhattan. For it to be useful, there would need to be sufficiently large
number of users such that matching friction would be low enough that it didn't
impact already low travel distances.

 _Though your idea has given me another idea. An app that lets taxi drivers
schedule with individuals directly. How many times do you take a taxi where
the driver will give you their card and say "Give me a call if you want a
ride?" Well, if you have an app that connects drivers with riders in an easy
fashion, then you can get into a situation where everybody's incentives are
aligned. You can get the driver to give the rider a discount, the driver does
this for guaranteed income, the rider does it for the discount, and you do it
because you get a small cut. You can then expand into a "group ride" policy
because your already having a person plan out their route._

UberCab? Rather Uber

