“The increase in the number of Star Taxi app users by 60% in the first half of 2015 compared with the first half of 2014 also led to an increase in the number of orders,” Vicol Moldoveanu, chief business development officer at Star Taxi App SRL, the company that owns and manages the application by the same name, told ZF.
“The number of orders rose by 90% in the first half of 2015 compared with the first half of 2014, to 3,500,000 orders from more than 1,900,000 orders.”
Star Taxi App SRL posted RON1.13 million revenue in 2014, almost 50% higher than in 2013, according to Finance Ministry data. It also switched to profit last year, which stood at RON5,177, according to the same source.
Most orders processed by Star Taxi in the first half were for rides in Bucharest, 75% to 80% of the total, followed by Cluj-Napoca.
“We expect a significant increase in orders in Constanta during the summer, considering people are vacationing there at this time of the year.”
The app is available in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Timisoara, Brasov, Buzau, Deva and Chisinau.
The number of taxi drivers registered with Star Taxi, too, increased in the first half, with more than 3,000 drivers currently serving customers in the eight cities the service is available in.
Star Taxi has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on systems running Google Android and Apple iOS, but the number of active users who created an account and used it at least once stands at 350,000.
The company has recently made the application available to devices running Windows Phone, which it expects will help boost user numbers.
“Considering we’ve been receiving requests for a Windows Phone version of Star Taxi since launch, we expect the number of users to go up by at least 20%.”
Star Taxi’s main rival is Clever Taxi, but taxi companies have developed their own applications, too.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)