We told you about it a few months ago… The official announcement of Uber to become “the first travel Super-App in the West.” From booking the restaurant to the VTC to go there, without leaving the app once… This is what the American leader dreams of. But it doesn’t stop there… Indeed, the latter wants to become “the must-have travel application”, for short and long distances. An expression taken up by Andrew Brem, Managing Director of Uber UK. And to achieve this goal, Uber has decided to join forces with the German online travel agency, Omio. Let’s take a closer look at this new multimodal offer, which provides “a seamless door-to-door travel experience across the UK”.
“All your travel options in one place”
Created in 2013, Omio keeps on moving the lines in the travel industry. Notably thanks to its large inventory of mobility services: train, bus, ferry, plane, airport transfers,… A multimodal offer that includes more than 1000 transport providers in 37 countries. Among them, we find the SNCF, DB, Thalys, Air France, Ryanair, EasyJet, Flixbus, Blablabus, Eurolines,…
A multimodal offer that attracted the American giant. Indeed, British users will be now able to plan and book train or bus trips via the Uber application. In a test phase, it seems that the other modes of transport proposed by Omio will be integrated later in the Super App, if it is successful.
A great first for the German travel agency… Indeed, as Omio’s founder and CEO, Narem Shaam, confided to TechCrunch, “Uber is the first partner that is both at this scale but also the first that gets access to our full ticketing API so you actually are, as a customer, able to do everything within the Uber app” . A deep integration, without any deep-link, which does not come without a trade-off…
Commissions on each reservation
A such partnership is not new for Omio. Indeed, it already collaborates with big names such as the famous travel comparison website Kayak or the manufacturer Huawei. But this time, the Berlin-based company is adopting a different business model. Indeed, to begin with, it has received initial revenues from technology licensing.
But not only that, it has also imposed on the American group the implementation of commissions for any reservation of tickets. And this, in both directions, because although Omio will receive a nest egg, Uber will also receive a portion. An undisclosed amount, but explained by the fact that the VTC leader presents itself as a business provider on the British market. According to the founder of Omio, this could be worth as much as 5 million potential customers.
A strategy that goes in the direction of Omio to expand globally. Indeed, as a reminder, from the acquisition in October 2019 of the multimodal company Rome2Rio, Omio has not stopped looking to expand both its coverage as its target.
We’ve spent years building our inventory and standardizing datasets for millions of ground transportation routes to make it easier for our consumers to travel by train, bus, ferry and airport transfer. We are now able to leverage our inventory and technology to evolve and grow our B2B business.
NAREN SHAAM, CEO AND FOUNDER OF OMIO
An expansion reflected in particular in its recent $80 million fundraising at the end of June 2022. With the ambition to “create a unified global transportation network on a single digital platform.” An astronomical sum, which brings the total amount raised to more than 400 million dollars since its creation. A new turn taken by Omio, known at the beginning as a B2C platform, which seems to be moving into B2B. A case to follow as much on the side of the German company as Uber, which we will continue to follow closely for you …
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