Competition in the Moscow taxi market is set to increase after an alliance of ride-hailing services known as Splyt opened their office in Russia, the Kommersant newspaper reported on March 21.
The market is currently dominated by the American Uber app and Russia’s native Yandex Taxi ride-hailing service.
While both Uber and Yandex are proprietary services with their own registered drivers and user interfaces, the British Splyt takes a different tack.
The platform is designed to integrate with smaller local taxi and ride-hailing services. In effect, several companies struggling to compete with the likes of Uber can join Splyt, which serves as a clearinghouse for their taxis.
Splyt is in negotiations with local Russian ride-hailing services in both Russia and Japan, the company’s founder and CEO, Phillip Mintchin, told Kommersant. However, he declined to specify which local companies his company was planning to work with.
The service should formally launch in the next few months, he said.