Yandex.Taxi enters Moscow corp market, hopes to get 15% by 2017

MOSCOW, Apr 6 (PRIME) -- An online taxi-hailing service of Russia’s Internet giant Yandex, Yandex.Taxi, has started working with corporate clients in Moscow and intends to occupy 10–15% of the market by the end of 2016, a Yandex spokesperson said Wednesday.

“Corporate orders account for about 10–15% of the taxi market in big cities. Our estimate of Moscow’s corporate segment is some 6 billion rubles per year,” the spokesperson said.

Yandex.Taxi is going to sign contracts with 20 companies in Moscow from various spheres, including banks and IT firms, the spokesperson said.

“The business is careful about spending. It’s cheaper to use Yandex.Taxi than allocate company cars for employees. Besides, companies have access to statistics of trips: who goes where and at what price. Transport expenses become more transparent,” Yandex.Taxi General Director Tigran Khudaverdyan said.

Companies can set a maximum amount of expenses per month for every employee and choose tariffs. Trips are paid for on a monthly basis.

The service will be deployed in several big cities of the country by the end of the current year.

According to the government’s analytical center, the country’s taxi market soared 85% to 441 billion rubles in 2010–2014. The number of taxis rose 20% to 338,000 units. Moscow’s market reached 181 billion rubles.

(68.8901 rubles – U.S. $1)

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