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130 million monthly active users as of 2023! That's the amount of users Uber has even today, i.e. after almost more than a decade. Do you think this demand is going to decrease anytime soon? No, right!
Like every other famous company, even Uber started because two friends wanted to solve a problem they faced in Paris. The founders were trying to reach their hotel late at night in Paris and were unable to get a cab. This is when Uber was born, they just wanted to make booking a cab a few steps away and this worked for them. Today despite having plenty of competitors, Uber stands tall and has millions of users as you can say. But, still there are many companies who invest in on demand taxi booking app development and want to compete in the market just like you.
What makes Uber unique is the ability to identify the problem early on and solve it and even after decades they are still innovating as a company. Today they are investing heavily in self-driving cars, will they succeed like their competitors? Time will tell that!
Table of Content
- Is It Worth It?
- Define your Unique Selling Point
- How to Create an App like Uber
- How to Monetize an App like Uber
- How to Start Taxi Booking App Development
- Marketing and Promotional Tactics
But, the key to having a successful venture is the constant hunger of innovating, understanding users’ needs and trying to fulfill it.
If you are thinking about how to make an app like Uber, you are at the right place. In this blog, I will walk you through how to create an app like Uber and make it stand out of your competitors.
Is It Worth It?
This would be the first question that you might ask yourself. Since there is already plenty of competition in the market with the existing big companies like Uber and Lyft. In fact, many people might even tell you no, but trust me investing in learning how to build an app like Uber is worth it. Let me tell you why.
Despite being in the market for decades and having a strong market capture, there are many places where Uber and Lyft are dropping the balls. For instance, there are many cases of assault, Uber drivers canceling the ride because of service pets, and much more. This is where your application can stand out. The key to success in this market will be to define your unique selling point.
PS: Want to know the secret to Uber clone app development? Then keep reading.Define your Unique Selling Point
This will be your biggest opportunity. Now how to define your USP. To do so, I would say start with studying your competitors thoroughly. Understand what they are doing right, wrong, how they are working, what is their business and revenue model like, how are they marketing, where and how are they getting investors and how are they spending their money.
Learning these things in detail will help you to understand what they are good at and where they are not. Additionally, this will also help you to define and understand the opportunities that you will have in the market.
Start local, go global!Once you know the opportunities that you have in the market, you will have your USP. One advice when defining your MVP, it is always better to focus on the local areas and understand your users. It will help you to solve the problem effectively and even have a market niche.
Next, let's see how to start with taxi booking app development.
How to Create an App like Uber
When you are wondering how to make an app like Uber, there are majorly 3 personas whom you will have to cater to. This will be
- Passengers
- Drivers
- Admin
So, let’s understand what essential features are you likely to include in your application for each of the persona and tentative taxi booking app development cost.
Features for Passengers
This is an essential feature to have so users can have their personalized profiles.
Having this feature will provide users with the ability to personalize their profile and make it theirs. They can update their home address, work, profile pictures, add friends, share their ride with their friends and much more.
Providing multiple payment options to your users like debit, credit, etc. Even an in-app wallet will work wonders for you and make the whole experience appealing for your users.
This is an essential feature to have as it will help you to locate the users and then find a cab nearby. Additionally, this feature is also important from a safety point of view as many time users share their ride location with their friends.
Define how you calculate the fare. Is it based on the location, distance, time, or combination of all? Remember to be transparent with your users and drivers. This will help you to have loyal customers. So, when users are booking these things show to your users how much they are charged and why.
Users should have an in-app messaging ability to connect with their drivers if the need be. Many times GPS tracking might fail to connect drivers and passengers, in times like these in-app messaging and calling features will come handy.
Allowing users to know the estimated time of arrival of their drivers or reaching their location, helps them to stay on time. As a business you can also use this feature to market certain discounts during the festive season.
Providing users an ability to rate their ride will help build the overall credibility of your app and also the drivers. This will help you have a loyal customer base and also attract new users.
Customers should also be able to see their booking history if the need be. In fact, you can also use this feature similar to Spotify’s Rewind. Making your users know how much they traveled with you and how much you have loved serving them. Connecting with users’ emotions will give you an edge over your competitors.
Features For Drivers
This is essential to provide for each driver to access the application and also for verification purposes.
Users should have access to their personalized profile. Wherein, they can view how many kms they traveled, how many rides they did, their earnings, and overall ratings.
Upon signing up users should be asked to verify their status in the country, license, and must be needed to upload other documents. Based on this information, you will also need to carry out background checks of drivers.
Interactive maps should be integrated into the application to help drivers with route optimization and navigation. Additionally, this will also help drivers to identify passengers and vice-versa.
Drivers should be made alert of the messages or calls they are getting from the passengers as they locate each other. As I said earlier, many times GPS tracking fails us.
Drivers should be able to see the stats of their rides like kms, speed, time, etc. along with the earnings. This transparency will help them understand how you are charging your concession money and how much are they earning.
Drivers should be able to put up their availability status so they don’t receive the ride requests on their day off. It will help in having some break and personal time.
While drivers are working they can be sent real-time requests from passengers. It will help you drivers to stay updated with any new request as they finish the current ones.
Drivers should be able to accept or reject the rides according to their need. This flexibility will help them to stay on your platform.
Even drivers should be able to rate passengers and help other drivers by sharing their experience.
If the driver has accepted the ride by mistake or they have changed their mind, they should be able to cancel the booking.
Features For Admins
Admin dashboard should allow them to see the drivers’ and passengers necessary data. This will help admin to know things in case of emergencies.
Admin should be able to see the yearly analytics and reports of drivers which in turn can help you to make necessary business decisions.
Admins should be given the map view to know drivers’ locations as well in case of need. Are you thinking of getting started with taxi booking app development? Reach out to us and leverage the knowledge of our experienced teams. You can either do Uber clone app development or also customize your application idea.
Want to know how?
Once you have understood the market needs and your target audience for your Uber clone app, your next step is to define how you will monetize your application. Let’s go through it.
How to Monetize an App like Uber
There are multiple ways for you to monetize an Uber clone app. Start with focusing on the cultural side of your target audience and how they are used to spending money. Focus on the purchasing power of your market and then define your model. Some of the common ways to monetize a taxi booking application are:
Freemium
This is the most common model for Uber clone app and you can make certain features free to use while certain paid. If users are interested in using those certain features they are supposed to pay for it. In many cases, users do end up purchasing premium versions as well. Examples of some features can be: X amount of discount on X amount of kms.
In-app Ads
You can collaborate with some famous events happening in your area and run in-app ad campaigns by providing a certain amount of discounts. It will help you to gain new customers and retain customers.
Cancellation Charges
This is another common way of charging fees in your Uber clone app. You can put a certain amount of cancellation charging fees for both passengers and drivers. In turn, this can help you to foster a certain amount of trust and quality work ethics.
Pre-booking Fees
You can charge X amount on pre-booking rides as a security money. This will ensure that drivers don’t have to travel unnecessarily and each parties’ time and effort is valued.
How to Start Taxi Booking App Development
Ideation and Market Research
Understanding your market needs and problems will be the starting point for you. Above we already walked through how understanding your competitors will give you an added advantage.
In fact, this is also a great opportunity to connect with some VCs or funding experts who might also provide you with some insights. They might also help you connect with some taxi booking app development company to help you stay ahead while you start.
Design and Development
Design has a huge role to play when it comes to gaining new users or even retaining your users. But, we also understand that design and development can not be everyone’s expertise. This is why we always suggest relying on our experienced expert team and we can help you to make a mark in the industry. Taxi booking app development company who has been part of the industry for more than a decade now, you can rely on the industry leaders who are working for us.
Testing and Deployment:
Once the application is designed and developed the next step is to deploy your product. Testing is essential to make sure that an application is working smoothly and there are no bugs. The application works is essential to define the market need for yourself and it also defines the market value of your company. You can also rely on our taxi booking app development services!
Rely on our expert team members who have experience of more than decade now and can help you with taxi booking app development.
Marketing and Promotional Tactics
There are plenty of ways you can market your application. Below are the some of the tried and tested method over the year for many companies:
Social Media Marketing
Leverage the power of various social media platforms. You can run various ad campaigns on it and target your users. You can also explore the analytics section and understand how your audience is interacting with your content and what they want more.
Search Engine Optimization
This is an essential method when you want to rank on various search engines. Many companies carry out various SEO practices to reach out to their target audiences. You can build a company website for marketing purposes and start the SEO practices to help you reach your users. Some of the common SEO practices are:
- On-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Off-Page SEO
- Local SEO
Depending on your marketing budget you can decide which you would like to start with and then switch or try all accordingly. Lastly, remember since you might have invested in taxi booking mobile app development you will also need to work on the SEO in the App Store and Play Store.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the common way which in today’s time many companies do to reach their target audience. Since there are already plenty of content creators in the market, the competition is very tough and this makes it really difficult to find the right influencer. In times like these, you can depend on their social media content and try to understand their user base. This will help you decide whether the particular influencer is correct for you or not.
Affiliate Marketing
For a taxi booking application affiliate marketing works like magic. You can create an ad campaign and provide an affiliate link to each of your users. On X amount of signups via those links you can focus on giving your users a certain amount of discounts. Investing in taxi booking mobile app development will be the perfect choice for all the right reasons you know.
Over to You
We know the competition is very high, but so is the market need. Understanding your market needs and the problems your users are facing can help you to stand out. Moreover, leveraging the knowledge and expertise of taxi booking app development company will help you to get started early on too.
Know how and where you stand out and then start developing an application like Uber. Additionally, your ability to define your USP will help you to stand ahead of your competitors. Reach out to us and let us help you to stay ahead of your competitors and serve your users.
