Careem has announced it now has 48 million users using its Super App to catch rides, order food, deliver items and make payments. The UAE-based ride-hailing app reached the impressive milestone after experiencing a significant drop in business during 2020.
As lockdowns began earlier in the year, Careem saw the number of people getting rides drop by nearly 90%. Similarly, its parent company Uber reported that gross bookings were down 75% between April and June.
However, after launching its Super App during the summer, which brought together all of Careem’s services into one app, the company has made a strong comeback.
Besides using the Careem app to get rides, users can also order food, have items delivered as well as make payments like recharging their phone credit.
While services on offer vary country-to-country they have become very popular among Careem’s users. The company says the number of people using multiple services has increased by 900%. As rides have risen ten-fold, food and item delivery has also increased by 400%. In addition, the ride-hailing company has seen payments traffic double.
Careem On Its Recent Performance
Speaking on the company’s Super App, Careem’s UAE General Manager Victor Kiriakos-Saad, told Arabian Business, “the idea of the super-app came from a customer-centricity perspective, so what we wanted was to have a simple and trusted super-app that provides a reward for loyalty. That’s our mission statement. What that means is that we have quite a lot of a user base and what we want them to do is use us in their everyday lives so that we can fulfil our mission which is to make everyday life simple.”
Kiriakos-Saad attributes Careem’s resilience down to the company having technology at its core. In an earlier interview with Arab News he said, “I worked with a lot of corporates and in digital transformation. I noticed that people that weren’t tech-enabled suffered the most.”
“For Careem, being digital and tech first, I think when COVID hit they were well prepared to overcome this challenge compared to other players that were very offline.”
For More Transport Coverage Check Out:
- Virgin Hyperloop: The Future of Middle East Transportation?
- Lorryz Transport: ‘Investors Are Heading For The Heavy Transportation Sector’
- How This Startup is Tackling Transportation in Tunisia
If you see something out of place or would like to contribute to this story, check out our Ethics and Policy section.
