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Australia: Taxify takes on Uber in ride share market

By  |  December 11, 2017

Competition in Sydney’s ride-sharing and taxi market will step up a gear in the lead-up to the Christmas holiday period with Taxify launching services in the city on Tuesday, December 12, offering customers a 50% discount on competitors’ base fares for a month.

The fast-growing Estonian company, which operates in 20 countries and counts Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing among its financial backers, is also trying to attract customers by taking a different approach to so-called surge pricing, the practice of increasing fares when demand exceeds supply of drivers.

While the extent of surge pricing over New Year’s Eve would be “dependent on the night,” Taxify’s Australia country manager, Samuel Raciti, said it was unlikely it would be more than 1.5 times the cost of the base fare at other times of the year.

Uber raises fares automatically when demand for rides increases substantially. In contrast, a local team member at Taxify will decide when to activate it based on demand.

Full Content: Financial Review

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