"India will become one of the biggest countries we do business in," said Nicolas Brusson co-founder and chief operating officer of BlaBlaCar. It will launch services in Delhi-Gurgaon on Wednesday.
India is the first stop in Asia, for the 10-year old company that has built an online community of 10 million across 13 countries so far. Last July, it received $100 million in funding from a slew of investors including Accel Partners and Index Ventures, when it first announced its interest in emerging markets including India, Brazil and Turkey.
Unlike taxi aggregators who have been asked to register as radio taxi operators, carpooling services in India are not bound by regulation as yet. "We have spoken with the relevant authorities and they have been encouraging about this," said Raghav Gupta, country manager for BlaBlaCar in India.
Brazil's Tripda which is backed by German incubator Rocket internet launched its Indian operations last November by offering ride sharing between cities. Meanwhile, a number of local players like RidingO, SmartMumbaikar and ZingHopper, offer similar services within cities.
Experts said governments support carpooling as it helps reduce traffic on clogged Indian roads, making it an attractive business for transport companies. While the private car owners cannot make a profit out of car-pooling, commercial businesses that link car owners with commuters can charge a fee.
"There is no such regulation that controls peer-to-peer ride sharing in India," said Jaspal Singh, partner at Valoriser Consultants. "Ride-sharing for city-to-city segment is going to be next game changer."
As such, car-pooling differs from the taxi-aggregation services offered by companies like Ola, Uber and Taxiforsure that link commercial drivers with local commuters within cities. Carpooling is now attracting the attention of these aggregators. "Ola is also looking at carpooling very closely. The company plans to launch a beta phase carpooling in Bangalore" said a person directly familiar with the launch expected in the first quarter.
BlaBlaCar, which draws its quirky name from one of the features that users display on their profile on the company's platform, expects users to log in using their Facebook profile. Members are asked how chatty they are on a scale of 'Bla', 'BlaBla' and 'BlaBlaBla.' They can then choose the driver they want to ride with based on profiles. In Spain, Poland and France, BlaBlaCar charges an 11% commission on each ride per person. In the other 10 countries where it operates commuters pay the driver in cash at time of the trip.
In India too, commuters will have to sign on through their Facebook profile, and book a ride with a driver they are likely to be comfortable with. While the service will be free for the first year, the company will later "take a percentage out of every booking," said Brusson.
In European markets this ridesharing service has emerged as a cheaper alternative to trains. In India, it is likely to be more about convenience, as booking last minute train rides between cities is cumbersome and offers little guarantee of actually finding a seat. The Indian Railways facilitates about 7.6 billon train rides annually .
"It is a big market for everybody," said Brusson whose company will compete directly with Tripda that operates mostly in Bangalore-Pune-Mumbai and Delhi sectors. "We are looking at acquiring smaller carpooling companies to scale business in India," said Nitish Bhushan, head of Tripda's Indian operations.
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