Local ride-hailing startups thrive in the towns that Uber forgot

November 11, 2022 8:53 AM

Uber and DiDi spent billions in Latin America. Now homegrown contenders are flourishing in the places they ignored.
posted by Etrigan (2 comments total)

Group chats as ride hailing infrastructure? I'm so fascinated....

Trust-building is also the main strategy in Venezuela, where Uber and DiDi do not operate, due to U.S. sanctions and hyperinflation. There, a local ride-hailing service known as Los Cautos is accessible on Whatsapp or via an app. On Whatsapp, users are referred by other clients and then added to geographically specific group chats. Los Cautos launched in 2017 in the medium-sized city of Maracaibo but has since expanded to San Francisco and Caracas.

posted by spamandkimchi at 9:42 AM on November 11, 2022

Local useful businesses built on trustworthiness are a great balance to stories about cryptocurrency, etc., claiming that we can get along without trust.

Is there a mechanism for traveling between systems? If I’m visiting another city, do I need to be vouched in by someone I’m visiting, or do geographically distinct systems extend each other a little trust (like postal services? but less so)?
posted by clew at 11:38 AM on November 12, 2022