“When BlaBlaCar was created, social networks barely existed, and smartphones were not that smart, so people were doubtful that carpooling could ever work at scale. Today one hundred million members are sharing their journeys and enabling a travel solution uniquely suited to society’s most pressing environmental and social issues. I can’t thank our members and team enough for this collective achievement,” says Frédéric Mazzella, President and Co-Founder of BlaBlaCar.

Development in Ukraine

Ukraine is a huge market for the company — BlaBlaCar has eight million users in Ukraine. The average travel distance is about 280 km inside Ukraine and about 800 km for international travel. In Ukraine, the average number of monthly active riders is about one million people, and, as the company assures, it is a big figure.

Today Ukraine is one of the key markets for BlaBlaCar. It is perspective for the company, so it continues to invest in Ukraine. In 2019, the company acquired the Ukrainian bus ticket operator Busfor. In April 2021, BlaBlaCar acquired the cloud platform for bus passenger traffic automation Octobus. By purchasing Octopus, the company sped up the digitalization of bus drives in Eastern Europe where this platform used to work and in other markets where BlaBlaCar is available.

“This milestone shows that carpooling is now mainstream. Looking forward, we are doubling down on innovation to power smarter matching allowing travellers to find a ride from anywhere to virtually everywhere. We’re also accelerating the digitalisation of long-distance buses outside of Europe, thereby becoming the one-stop shop for shared road transport. Millions of empty seats are still wasted, and waiting to be shared. We’re dedicated to using technology to make travel more efficient and friendly,” Nicolas Brusson, CEO & Co-Founder of BlaBlaCar.

Spring 2021, BlaBlaCar announced a new engineering hub in Kyiv. Like in Paris, a big-size technical development team is located in the Ukrainian capital. Currently, they work on a bus marketplace. There are 70 workers at the moment, and they expect to grow up to 100 by the end of 2021.

Monetization

This year, BlaBlaCar also plans to run in Ukraine carpooling drives monetization. Now they earn only from selling the bus tickets:

“Carpooling is not monetized yet, and it is a part of our strategy. We always used to invest for several years to create desired liquidity. The Ukrainian market is about to run monetization, and we will start this year. We will not share any details yet. But almost all Western European markets are already monetized,” a company representative said.

Among BlaBlaCar’s priority goals for 2022 is to expand to Latin American markets, namely Brazil. Also, the company wants to increase the number of partner bus carriers in those markets.

Speaking of Ukraine, the company will continue to invest in the engineering hub, platform, and bus market digitalization.

• According to the company, the acquisition of Octobus will effectively develop bus services, accelerate the digitalization of this market in Ukraine, and scale it to the countries where BlaBlaCar operates.
• In particular, the deal will expand the capabilities of BlaBlaCar. The service of bus transportation, which the company plans to launch, will have a website, a mobile application for online sales, a call center for telephone sales, as well as a mobile application for drivers and staff.
• It is noted that BlaBlaCar has made this decision as part of its overall development strategy.

“Together with the strong and talented team of Octobus, we will offer carriers a technology that will help them ensure an optimal online presence, optimize their business processes by focusing on the key tasks of their business, the quality of services, and, consequently, increase sales,” commented Aleksey Lazorenko, General Manager of BlaBlaCar in Ukraine.

• According to Ivan Kirov, Founder & CEO of Octobus, the system will remain an independent tool for bus carriers to manage their business processes.
• Existing BlaBlaCar partners will be able to use the service for free.
• To recap, at the end of 2019, BlaBlaCar in Ukraine went beyond carpooling rides and acquired Busfor, the largest bus service operator in Central and Eastern Europe.
• BlaBlaCar will also launch a large engineering hub in Ukraine. Ukrainian developers will work on the development and scaling of the bus marketplace.

The company Octobus was founded in 2018 in Kyiv. As of 2021, the Octobus platform is used by bus carriers in eight countries of the world. In Ukraine, Octobus unites bus operators, major bus terminals, and online agencies in single distribution space, allowing to sell tens of thousands of bus tickets per month.

Currently, the engineering team of BlaBlaCar in Ukraine consists of about 20 people. By the end of 2021, the company plans to increase the number of technical specialists to 50.

Why Ukraine?

At the end of 2019, BlaBlaCar in Ukraine went beyond carpooling rides and acquired Busfor, the largest bus aggregator in Central and Eastern Europe. That allowed BlaBlaCar to get unique technologies for distribution, booking, and sales of bus tickets, which are the basis of the bus marketplace.

With the help of the team of Ukrainian engineers and, first of all, their expertise, which the company did not have before, BlaBlaCar will be able to scale the product to other countries and regions, including Latin America.

“We know that Ukraine has world-class professionals with great potential, expertise, and experience who are able to build global products. We would like to see them as a part of our team,” commented Aleksey Lazorenko, General Manager of BlaBlaCar in Ukraine.

What the Ukrainian hub will be working on

The team will focus on several tasks:

• The creation of the Global Distribution System (GDS), the system that underpins the bus travel aggregator. The GDS will allow bus carriers to connect to BlaBlaCar and post their trips and passengers – book and buy tickets.
• Scaling the bus marketplace to other countries. BlaBlaCar has over 100 million users in Western and Eastern Europe, Turkey, India, and Latin America, which will get a variety of transportation solutions.
• Working on improving the product, creating, and connecting new features that will maximize the needs of carriers and passengers, and make finding and buying bus tickets easier, more convenient, and reliable.

How to get a job at BlaBlaCar

Currently, there are more than 13 openings for people with technical skills:

• Java developers
• Q&A specialists
• Project managers
• Product managers

The recruiting process at BlaBlaCar consists of several steps:

• technical qualification
• practical task
• several meetings with future colleagues and managers

Most positions are available to work completely remotely.

About BlaBlaCar

BlaBlaCar is a carpooling platform with a website and mobile app for iOS and Android. As of April 2021, the number of BlaBlaCar users exceeds 100 million people in 22 countries, with more than 20 million people making trips with BlaBlaCar every quarter. The number of users who use BlaBlaCar on smartphones (iOS and Android) exceeds 30 million.

BlaBlaCar officially operates in the following 22 countries: Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

BlaBlaCar entered the Ukrainian market in early 2014 by acquiring the Ukrainian startup Podorozhnyky. To date, the number of Ukrainian users exceeds 5 million people, and Ukraine is among the top 3 fastest growing countries for BlaBlaCar in the world.

What is it?

BlaBlaHelp is a free mobile application where people who need help with a shopping trip can find the person for it.

“In 7 days, BlaBlaCar has developed a new mapping application so that people can help each other with shopping. The application allows users to find reliable helpers or to offer help to their neighbors.”

How it works

• BlaBlaHelp runs separately from the main BlaBlaCar application. It is available for iOS and Android users to download.
• To become a helper, you need to register or log in to the application via your BlaBlaCar account. Then in a special box, you need to fill in the information about the services that you can offer.
• To find the helper, you need to download the application, select the nearest person on the map, and click “Send request.”

According to the company, there are 6 million users of BlaBlaCar service in Ukraine.

Deal

The amount of the deal is not disclosed. It is expected to be closed by the end of 2019 after regulatory approval. The company also did not disclose whether the deal was for cash or shares.

Parties to the deal

Since its foundation in 2006, BlaBlaCar has raised $448.5 million, an investment valuation of the company is $1.6 billion. The service entered Ukraine in 2014, having acquired the local startup Podorozhniki.com for the price of $1 to $3 million. The total number of users is 80 million people in 22 countries.

Busfor is the largest bus ticket search and purchase service in Ukraine, Central, and Eastern Europe. Currently, more than 7,000 carriers have joined the platform, monthly sales amount to more than 700,000 tickets. The total offer available on the Busfor platform is over $4 billion. Busfor earned first money in 2010 under the name GillBus, a company with Ukrainian founders was engaged in the development. In 2012, the project was reorganized into a separate enterprise. In total, Busfor attracted $32.5 million in investments, the largest round was raised in 2016.

BlaBlaCar has 5 million active users in Ukraine. The monthly number of users of Busfor sites and applications, as well as of a network of 600 ticket agents is 7 million. They are divided by a region: Ukraine, Central, and Eastern European countries.

Deal result

For BlaBlaCar, this solution is part of an overall development strategy: the company aims to become a global marketplace for road travel by combining carpooling and bus offers on a single platform to give passengers a wide range of vehicles. It is convenient to travel by bus taking popular routes when the price remains affordable and the ticket itself can be purchased in advance. Carpooling offers are characterized by an infinite variety of routes, covering even unpopular destinations, while the cost of the trip remains low, and you can reserve a seat in a car at the last moment.

Busfor brand and services will continue to work.

• BlaBlaCar users will eventually be able to book bus tickets on the BlaBlaCar platform.
• Busfor partners will have access to BlaBlaCar’s passengers upon completion of technical integration in the 4th quarter of 2019.

The merger of BlaBlaCar and Busfor will not result in any downsizing of employees or termination of partnerships. Management will also retain its position but within the common structure.

Oleksandr Pavlovich, CEO of Busfor in Ukraine, noted that the deal will help to attract young people to bus transportation:

Bus transportation is one of the most affordable and flexible means of transport in Ukraine. However, the industry and its main players – carriers and bus stations – need to increase passenger flow, primarily by attracting young and active passengers.

Oleksiy Lazorenko, CEO of BlaBlaCar in Ukraine:

Our main goal is to give maximum travel opportunities to millions of our users by adding bus offers to the joint travel, so that everyone can choose the most suitable transport in a couple of clicks on their smartphone.

Nowadays, online sales in Ukraine still account for less than 10% of ticket sales. The main part is sold at bus stations, explains Nicolas Brusson, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar.

BlaBlaCar and buses

This is not the first deal of such kind for BlaBlaCar. In 2018, carpooling has acquired the French bus operator Ouibus and launched the BlaBlaBus service. Now it is available in seven countries of Western Europe.

The integration of complementary transport solutions (carpooling and buses) will attract more users to the platform. This will make it easier for car owners to find fellow passenger and for carriers – to find passengers. Ultimately, both will be more efficient in filling vacant spaces.

• The 5 millionth user registered last week, the company noted.
• Ukraine is among TOP 3 countries with the highest user base growth.
• BlaBlaCar has 75 million users in 22 countries.
• Rapid growth of the platform is due to an increase in commute in cities with over one million people (Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Lviv).
• BlaBlaCar operates in Ukraine under its own brand name since 2014. The service introduced monetization for local users back in 2018.
• The company plans to partner up with bus carriers in the future.

Starting from November 2018 the possibility to book a car for passengers will be paid. After the user has selected the route and the driver, he/she will be required to pay to make a reservation: one-day reservation will cost 49 UAH, one-month reservation will be 59 UAH. The payment option is accessible on the website, as well as in-App (iOS, Android). New rules would not apply to the rides less than 120 km long, their booking is available free of charge.

Basing on the results of monetization in other countries, as well as many surveys and interviews with Ukrainian BlaBlaCar users, such format of access is the most popular and optimal. The main advantage of the approach is that every user can choose the specific payment option which is right for him/her and suits him/her depending on frequency of rides. For instance, if a person travels once a month, the best option would be an access for one month. In case a couple of rides is needed – it is better to get an access for one day.

The payment rules were left unchanged – you need to pay in cash. However, the company has confirmed that they are considering cashless payments, “as one of the available options”.

For drivers themselves the service remains free of charge. The company says that they continue to monitor the amount of compensations – using BlaBlaCar implies partial compensation of transportation costs, and not earnings.

In Ukraine, where BlaBlaCar first appeared four years ago, taking over the startup “Podorozhniki”, and now there are over 4 million users. All of them will receive 3 months of free booking, which must be activated until November. Also, one month of free booking will be given to all new users.

Now BlaBlaCar works in 22 countries worldwide, there are 65 million users, 20 millions of which travel quarterly. Mobile app audience of BlaBlaCar consists of 30 million users. In late September, the company announced that it became profitable