Lyft Acquires Hitch Ridesharing Platform To Bolster Carpooling Services
Lyft, a privately held ridesharing service headquartered in San Francisco, has pulled over curbside to pick up Hitch, a carpooling startup also located in the most densely populated city in California (and second most densely populated city in the entire U.S. after New York City). The acquisition will be used to accelerate Lyft Line, Lyft's own carpooling service.
"We’re excited to welcome current Hitch drivers into the Lyft community, many of whom are already signed on as ridesharing drivers," Lyft said in a blog post. "Lyft Line is in its early stages, and we’re only beginning to see what we can do with shared rides. We have seen incredible growth and demand for Lyft Line in San Francisco, and the Hitch team and technology will help us move even faster to bring shared rides to more people."
The idea behind Hitch is that riders traveling the same route could save a bit of coin by splitting the cost of rides. There's also a social appeal behind the service, so not only do you benefit from cheaper fares than what you might pay a taxi driver, but you'll meet new people along the way.
Hitch's main challenge was figuring out how to grow big enough to make the service worthwhile, especially as more competitors moved into its space, including Lyft and Uber. Lyft especially posed a competitive problem since its service is available in several U.S. cities, a problem that was solved overnight with this acquisition.
"We’re excited to welcome current Hitch drivers into the Lyft community, many of whom are already signed on as ridesharing drivers," Lyft said in a blog post. "Lyft Line is in its early stages, and we’re only beginning to see what we can do with shared rides. We have seen incredible growth and demand for Lyft Line in San Francisco, and the Hitch team and technology will help us move even faster to bring shared rides to more people."
The idea behind Hitch is that riders traveling the same route could save a bit of coin by splitting the cost of rides. There's also a social appeal behind the service, so not only do you benefit from cheaper fares than what you might pay a taxi driver, but you'll meet new people along the way.
Hitch's main challenge was figuring out how to grow big enough to make the service worthwhile, especially as more competitors moved into its space, including Lyft and Uber. Lyft especially posed a competitive problem since its service is available in several U.S. cities, a problem that was solved overnight with this acquisition.
