BlaBlaCar

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BlaBlaCar
Private
Founded 2006; 18 years ago (2006)
Founders Frédéric Mazzella (CEO) Nicolas Brusson (COO) Francis Nappez (CTO)
Headquarters Paris, France
Website blablacar.com

BlaBlaCar is the world's largest long-distance ridesharing community.[1] Conceived in December 2003 by Frédéric Mazzella,[2] and founded in 2006,[3] BlaBlaCar connects drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey. BlaBlaCar has more than 25 million members across 22 countries.[4][5][6][7]

Members must register and create a personal online profile, which includes ratings and reviews by other members, social network verification, and rate of response.[8][9] “Profiles of members show how much experience they have of the service, meaning those with more – known as "ambassadors" – attract more ride shares and, importantly, each user's profile includes a "BlaBla" measurement, which indicates how much they are willing to chat during a trip”.[2]

As of April 2015, the company had raised USD$100 million from blue-chip venture-capital firms including ISAI, Index and Accel, plus earlier rounds of €1.2 million from ISAI and €600,000 from founders, friends, and family.[10]

On September 16 2015, BlaBlaCar announced it had raised another US $200 million "primarily from US investors" in a round that valued the company at USD$1.6 billion.[11]

The service is accessible via the web, mobile and also via apps for iOS and Android.[12]

History

Mazzella first came up with the idea in 2003 while trying to travel home for Christmas, during which he observed many empty car seats available but no way to access them.[13] In 2008, the founders launched the "2.0 web community Covoiturage.fr", described as "Booking meets Facebook." Covoiturage.fr was originally both C2C (free) and B2B, selling the software platform to companies to use to encourage ridesharing amongst employees and sold as many as 200 platforms. But the B2B model was not profitable, requiring too many customisations for lower and lower costs, so the founders focused entirely on the C2C model and looked on how to improve it and monetise it.[13]

Business Model

The startup's economic model is designed for long distances and geared toward motorists looking to fill empty seats during journeys they would have been making anyway.[14]

File:Blablacar nalepka FR.JPG
BlaBlaCar sticker on a car

International Expansion

  • BlaBlaCar expanded into Spain in 2009 [15]
  • BlaBlaCar launched in the UK in June 2011 [16]
  • BlaBlaCar launched in Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, and Portugal in October of 2012 [17]
  • BlaBlaCar launched in Italy in March of 2012 by acquiring PostoinAuto.it [18]
  • BlaBlaCar launched in Germany in April 2013 [19]
  • BlaBlaCar expanded into Ukraine and Russia in January 2014 by acquiring Podorozhniki [20][21]
  • BlaBlaCar launches in Turkey in September 2014 [22]
  • BlaBlaCar launches in India in January 2015 [23]
  • BlaBlaCar launches in Mexico by buying Aventones in April 2015 [24]
  • BlaBlaCar expands into Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia through acquiring AutoHop [25]
  • In April 2015 BlaBlaCar acquired Carpooling.com [26]
  • BlaBlaCar launches in Brazil[6]
  • In 2016 BlaBlaCar expands into the Czech Republic and Slovakia [27]

Critical Reception

BlaBlaCar has been awarded over 50 prizes and honours since its creation, including most recently a special prize from the Le Figaro for ‘Best place to work: fun and performance’” according to INSEAD Business School.[28]

See also

Further Reading

References

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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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