Merge Yandex Taxi and Uber. Combining giants: why Uber and Yandex.Taxi merged. What will happen to services

The largest players in the passenger transport market in Russia Uber and Yandex united. The decision on the merger was made back in 2017, but the final association occurred only on June 14, 2018. The leadership delivered an ambitious task: to create a "personal public transport", which could be an affordable alternative to buses, subway or private car. But what were the real consequences for passengers and drivers?

Conditions and objectives of the association

The volume of investments invested in the association and, amounted to 100 and 225 million dollars, respectively. Most of the shares (59.3%) were filled with Yandex, another 36.6% bought up Uber, and the remaining 4.1% on the results of the transaction were divided between employees of the combined company.

For the passenger transport market

The passenger transport market in Russia undergoes significant changes. Virtually completely crowded classic taxi. Competition is becoming increasingly tough, and when two large companies are combined with each other, it becomes even more difficult to compete with them.

Note that earlier in Russia there are several more companies working in the field of passenger traffic, including with the help of mobile applications, combined their services. So, as a result of the merge of Rutaxi, a taxi "lucky", "Leader", Saturn and RedTaxi formed a new large player in the market - the Fasten Russia operator. According to analysts, it accounts for about 12.3% of all taxis orders in Russia (according to the results of 2017). In the same 2017, the cumulative share of Yandex and Uber absorbed 10.4% of the market. After combining the joint forces of the company will be able to provide an approximately fifth of orders in the passenger transport market. In major cities, this indicator can be even higher.

Photo. Key stakeholders of the market (research conducted by the analytical center under the Government of the Russian Federation).


It became a real informational bomb - this merger can significantly change the further development of the taxi market in Russia.

RusBase decided to learn the opinion of the Specialist on the topic - the Busfor Service Coordinator Ilya Ekushevsky tells what it means combining services why it happened and what are the price prospects for end customers.

"Rock and enough": which means the association "Yandex.Taxi" and Uber - an expert opinion

Ilya Ekushevsky

Rocked and enough

The fact is that the consolidation of large players can lead to market monopolization. As a result, the service will rise in price for end customers, but not immediately.


According to Western publications, the deal to combine the company should be completed by the end of this year, so while the cost of the service is likely to change. But in 2018 it is possible to expect changes: the prerequisites for increasing the cost have long been ripe.


Possible increase in prices is due to the fact that due to the competitive struggle, the cost of a taxi trip has fallen to such an extent that the service has become available for everyone. Therefore, the rise may occur at least in those cities where the share of the combined company will be high.


The first to change prices, most likely, will be scented by residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg:

  • First, it is cities with the highest middle income per resident (compared to other regions of Russia).
  • Secondly, here the price of a trip to Yandex. Taxi and the Uber was originally higher than in other cities of the country. So, the average trip to Yandex.Taxi in St. Petersburg accounted for 300-400 rubles, whereas, for example, the client could pay only 100-200 rubles in Perm. Uber in the regions gave lower prices: from 60 rubles per trip in the same Perm and from 150-200 - in St. Petersburg.

The audience in large cities is less sensitive to raising the cost and here a new company can be well earned. Due to this, in the rest of the country's regions, the cost is likely to remain low, which will allow to have a competitive offer and increase market share.

Competition is expensive

There are other prerequisites for combining two services. It became too expensive for each side of the parties: in the price war, one traffic is not enough, you need to constantly attract foreign investment. Multimillion investments pay off indefinitely.


I suppose the parties determined that when combining his own economy would work better for them, and business at the expense of volume accelerates in development.

Remember? Such has already been

There are similar examples of successful mergers in the world. So, in the Chinese market, where in the summer of 2016, Uber united with a large local Didi Chuxing player, he only won. Obviously, the American service was becoming more and more difficult and more expensive to withstand competition on the specific Chinese market, so the parties found the point of contact, which worked for effectiveness.


World taxi markets are tightly engaged in strong local players. So, in China, Russia, India, the American service clearly had difficulty, therefore, Uber chose the tactics of cooperation, and not tough competition.


The released Uber products can spend on the development of the product and the development of its own autopilot, which will definitely create a strong advantage in the future.

And what is gett?

Combining and Uber can entail other changes. The rest of the market players will have to look for new ways of development, adjust to the changing conjuncture.


Gett "y, one sideIt will be more difficult to develop on the market near the united company, because the drivers will have less. On the other hand, He will be able to keep his audience due to the best market proposal, on a small amount cheaper to provide low cost of transportation.


Theoretically, the GETT can also be united with other strong Russian players, for example, with Rutaxi services (Saturn, "lucky" and "leader"). In my opinion, the struggle for most of the market is just beginning.

I found out how it will work all this and who will benefit from the merger of two market giants.

What conditions are combined

The parties have already revealed the financial part of the issue. Uber will put on a new company of $ 225 million and will receive 36.6 percent of the shares, Yandex - $ 100 million for 59.3 percent of shares. Rated $ 3.7 billion, it will act in six countries and 127 cities, carrying out 35 million trips in the amount of 7.9 billion rubles. Yandex will also develop business on the delivery of Ubereats food based on hiking routes Yandex.Cart.

What was the market to unification

According to the sources of "tape.ru", in 2016, Drivers Yandex. Taxi made more than 16 million trips per month, more than 500 thousand trips per day. The second on the market of the Uber market has passed a monthly 4.8 million trips, or 160 thousand per day, and the gettt leaders are 4.3 million travels per month, or 143 thousand per day.

Photo: Evgeny Pavlenko / Kommersant

In the same year, experts of the analytical center were evaluated by the total volume of the legal taxi market in 441 billion rubles, and illegal - at 116 billion rubles. According to their data, 338 thousand taxi drivers are constantly working in Russia, and the number of licenses issued exceeds 457 thousand.

In Moscow, there are more than 47 thousand licenses, in the Moscow region - more than 105 thousand. This is due to the fact that today licenses in the capital are issued only with yellow cars, and in the suburbs official color taxi - white, that is, the car is not needed to repaint or shock the film.

Most cars belong to taxoparks, and Yandex.Taxi, Uber and Gett protrude orders aggregators, that is, a more advanced analogue of dispatching. For the use of its system, they charge the monthly commission with taxoparks and take 15-20 percent from each trip. The taxpar themselves earn on rental cars, getting up to 2 thousand rubles from taxi drivers daily.

The average taxi driver in Moscow - 7.3 thousand rubles a day, in St. Petersburg - 6 thousand rubles, in million cities - 3.5 thousand rubles. Most drivers are registered as individual entrepreneurs and are not officially listed in the state of taxoparks who rent cars.

What changes are drivers

Uber and Yandex.Taxi will combine the databases of drivers, besides, they will use cards and algorithms for the distribution of Yandex orders. In the theory of taxi drivers, it becomes easier to navigate in the city, since the Yandex navigator is objectively better than the service used in the Uber application. The combined base (again in theory) will increase the number of free machines, which will reduce the feed time and will reduce the cost of travel.

However, the taxi drivers themselves are not very happy. The driver of Yandex. Taxi Said told Lente.ru that the abundance of free cars will strengthen competition, but will reduce the workload of drivers. So, the number of trips will decrease. "It's all, of course, very cool, but I am for rented Ford Focus crying 1850 rubles a day. And more gasoline - the car "eats" 10 liters per 100 kilometers, it is 370-400 rubles. Plus, the commission of rubles in 800 - formally pays to a taxi, and in fact I. Middle order I have now - 300 rubles, I do such orders 15. So consider how much I earn, "he complains.

Photo: Anton Belitsky / Kommersant

The driver of Uber Alexey agrees with him. "Without a license, you will not work now, plus we will soon be completely flawed with the color, in Moscow all the cars should be yellow, and it is even more acquainted with a film that costs thousands of 30-40. Yes, now we will fight for every order, the passengers will probably enjoy it. But they will definitely be able to raise the money less, and migrants will squeeze us. They are ready on AIDS [amphetamines] for 20 hours plow, and we are not. Although where they get, you have to "," he says.

Alexey also noted that the drivers will certainly become more common to work by private wrap. "We stand in the night and stand at points where there are many people. It is often possible to negotiate. And in the morning you already stand up for orders from Uber. True, for this, there should be a car to be a car, in a taxi, they will quickly arouse that you are hurrying, and they will not allow the flight to constantly go out, "the taxi driver summarizes.

Like changes to passengers

In theory, the union of databases of drivers and a single navigation from Yandex will increase the rate of car feed and allow taxi drivers to navigate in cities. "This is very important because 80 percent of drivers are outresses from the CIS," explains the source of "tape.ru" in one of the taxi services.

On the other hand, the price war will end between Yandex.Taxi and Uber, who annoyed taxi drivers, but really liked users. Both companies constantly dumping and introduced new options: in February they installed fixed prices, and in April "Yandex.Taxi" supported the declared Uber lower prices for 10-50 percent.

Photo: Alexander Koryakov / Kommersant

At the same time, to preserve the income, both companies introduced the so-called zones of increased demand, where, depending on the time of the day and the driver's workload, the cost of the trip increased. True, it led to the fact that during the peak hours, the tariffs took off by 200 percent, and in the case of the weather, the 15-minute route was in the conditional 800 rubles.

Nevertheless, the joining Yandex.Taxi and Uber is unlikely to reduce the cost of travel. On the contrary, the combined company will actually become a monopolist on the market, and therefore will be able to not only dictate the price policy, but also not to take into account the opinion of taxi drivers, which, because of the increased number of free drivers, there will be no other choice but to adopt new rules of the game.

So, passengers will continue to carry, including those who do not know the city, but working at 20 o'clock and receiving a penny taxi drivers. Only the price for their services is likely to increase, because now the Yandex.Taxi Union and Uber can not be afraid that their orders will pick up drivers of competing service.

"And Uber decided to combine businesses on online travel orders and create a new company for this, companies reported. The combined company will work in Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The Uber business in Ukraine is not part of the transaction, the representative of the Uber stressed.

In Russia as in China?

Last summer, Uber sold Chinese business local competitor to Didi Chuxing Technology. In China, the company carried approximately $ 1 billion losses per year and decided to abandon the fight for the market.

Immediately after the announcement of the transaction at 13.00 Moscow time, Yandex quotes at the Moscow Stock Exchange flew by almost 7%, and then they continued to grow and 13.40 MSK increased by more than 17% to the historic maximum in 1915 rubles.

Uber and Yandex decided to invest $ 225 million and $ 100 million to a new company, respectively, assessing a joint company at $ 3.725 billion. By 59.3%, the company belongs to Yandex, by 36.6% - Uber, and by 4.1% - employees of the united company. "Our teams will be combined. I become the general director of the Joint Company, "said Tigran Khudaledan, the general director of Yandex.Taksi. According to Hudverdian, companies want to build "personal public transport" - an alternative to a personal car, buses and metro.

Who won, who lost?

Financial Times writes that thus Uber is inferior to "Yandex" the Russian taxi market after several years of tense competitive struggle. The newspaper indicates that this is the first strategic step of the Uber after the scandalous departure of the founder of the Calanik's Trevis service.

A player with a dominant position in the market, close to the monopoly, believes the partner of the Venture Foundation Target Global Alexander Frolov. According to him, the Foundation has invested in the American taxi Juno service. The combined player will complicate the development of other services, such as Gett, City Mobil, "lucky", believes Frolov. He observed a similar example in China, when the local carrier DIDI CHUXING was also united with Uber. Previously, the services were actively competing, which turned into profitable tariffs. But now the dumping period ends, Frolov is sure.

The partner of the UFG Private Equity (invested in the United Company Rutaxi and Saturn) Arthur Akopyan believes that the transaction of Uber and Yandex.Taxi became a consequence of subsidies from the services: in the conditions of high competition, the company reduced prices and actually reimbursed the cost of travel as drivers, So and passengers. According to him, there were tens of millions of dollars on their estimates, there are tens of millions of dollars every month. Such a level of competition market simply cannot support long, says Akopian. It reminds that the Rutaxi and Saturn Union has become one of the first signs of the emergency consolidation. He believes that in the end, two or three players should remain from the manifold of companies, and taxi prices will grow.

"This union will increase the number of orders and the volume of trips for taxoparks, which before that worked only with one of the aggregators, as well as simplify the access of taksoparks to a greater number of passengers. Combining the platform for Drivers Uber and Yandex.Taxi will make it possible to more effectively distribute orders between drivers and reduce the idling time, which will have a positive effect on earnings. On the other hand, I do not think that the tariff policy of the services will change - the new structure has a large number of competitors, such as Fasten, Rutaxi, Maxim and Gett, which occupy significant market share. Any decisions of the combined company leading to raising tariffs for taxoparks will lead only to the flow of partners and drivers to competitors companies, which will have a negative impact on the quality of service. It is unlikely that Yandex and Uber do not understand this, "said the Chairman of the Public Council for Taxi Development, Irina Zaripov.

Applications will remain

After closing the transaction, both applications for ordering travel - and Yandex.Taxi, and Uber - will continue to be available to users. But the taxi and drivers will switch to a single technological platform, which will increase the number of machines available for orders, reduce the time of their feed, reduce the idle mileage, improve the reliability and availability of the service as a whole, is emphasized in the message.

"The combined company will use the technology and knowledge of Yandex in the field of cartographic and navigation services and search engines and Uber's experience as a world leader among online services to order travel," the parties noted.

The advice of directors of both companies has already approved the transaction, now regulators must agree. The parties expect to complete the union in the fourth quarter of 2017. "The petition to combine business" Yandex "and Uber online orders for travel in Russia and other countries in the FAS Russia has not been received. The share of companies on the specified market will be determined during the comprehensive consideration of the petition in its admission, "the head of the Communications Management and Information Technologies of FAS Elena Zheva said.

"According to the forecasts of Yandex, their share of their joint business will be less than 50% in the market. Accordingly, if the share of the combined company is less than 50%, as well as if it does not have a decisive influence on the functioning of the taxi market, it will not impede competition in the market, the transaction on the merger of two companies will comply with the requirements of antitrust laws, "says Senior Lawyer BGP Litigation Anastasia Evtushenko.

According to statistics, in the past June, the combined platform will cover 127 cities in six countries, both services account for 35 million travels per month, their total cost amounted to 7.9 billion rubles.

"" and signed an agreement on combining businesses on the online order for travel in Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan, the blog "Yandex". Against the background of the transaction of the Yandex shares at pre-trading, NASDAQ rose by more than 12%. On the Moscow Stock Exchange, the quotes rose by more than 14%.

Under the terms of the agreement, Uber and Yandex invest $ 225 million and $ 100 million in a new company, rating it at $ 3.725 billion, taking into account these investments and possible adjustments at the time of closing the transaction 59.3% of the company will belong to Yandex, 36, 6% - Uber, and 4.1% - employees. Companies expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2017, after the approval of the regulators. He heads the company CEO of Yandex.Taxi Tigran Hudverdyan.

The new company will use the technologies and knowledge of "Yandex" in the field of cartographic and navigation services and search engines and Uber's experience as a world leader among online services to order travel. Also, companies have concluded a roaming agreement for which you can order a Uber taxi from the Yandex application and vice versa.

Hudavruyan said that both service applications will remain available to order the trips, and drivers will be combined into a single platform. According to him, this will increase the number of available cars and reduce the timeout time of the order. According to him, companies want to build a "personal public transport" - an alternative to a personal car, buses or subway.

"We will also continue to develop a unmanned car technology, the first successes of which were published several weeks ago. We use the many years of accumulated experience of our engineers, their knowledge of computer vision, recognition of images and machine learning. I hope that it will soon boast," noted Hudverdian.

"This union is beneficial not only to both the companies, but the main thing - users, drivers and cities, also noted Pierre-Dimitri Mountains, the head of Uber in Europe, Middle East and Africa. - This transaction confirms the exclusive growth of the Uber in the region and will help. In the future formation of sustainable international business. "

The United Company will cover 127 cities in six countries and pursue about 35 million trips per month in the amount of 7.9 billion rubles, counted in Yandex.. In addition, the service for the delivery of Ubereats food, recently launched in Moscow, will continue development in a new company And it will use the Yandex.Cart Router Routing Technology.

Uber went to the Russian market in November 2013 in Moscow, by July 2017, the American service can be used in almost 20 cities of Russia. Yandex.Taxi was launched in Moscow in October 2011. At the moment, Yandex.Taxi works in more than 100 major cities of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

In 2016, Uber conducted a similar merger transaction in China. The service combined its Chinese business Uber China with its main local competitor to Didi Chuxing. Then companies united on the Didi Chuxing platform, which received the brand Uber China, business and company data, and Uber received a share in a joint venture.

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