minicabit

Market

Target market

Various estimates of the UK Private Hire (minicab) sector value it at £2-4 billion.

Whilst we intend to capture a portion of the booking revenue flow from local cab trips that are increasingly made online rather than by phone, we also want to unlock the higher value cab trips that have yet to be made. For instance, customers may have dismissed taking an out of town trip on the assumption that it may be too expensive or too much hassle to organise. Our technology aims to address these perceived pain points to enable more bookings.

In particular, we are focusing on:
- convenience buyers who typically book online for time-efficiency and who value the convenience of personal, point to point travel vs. public transport.

- cost-conscious buyers who typically search price comparison websites for the best deal.

Characteristics of target market

We've been trading for well over 2 years, so have in-depth insights on customer booking behaviour, as well as experience of working with cab operators of all sizes and locations, from a small operator in a rural town to a major metropolitan fleet.

Also, the CEO of minicabit has previously been responsible for mobile apps and internet partnerships at Vodafone Global and O2, but also did a stint as a part time minicab driver during university. Consequently he uniquely carries a powerful combination of the digital and cabbing experience this business faces!

Marketing strategy

The positive boost minicabit has received from its UK-wide exposure on BBC TV's Dragons' Den show has been a welcome bonus. However, our route to market has always been focused on achieving stronger Google rankings via SEO, as well as via carefully chosen marketing partnerships.

Having O2 as an investor has also enabled us to direct bespoke promotional offers via its customer base, for instance with O2 Priority Moments.

Competition strategy

It can be argued that the online cab booking market is still in an early growth, pre-consolidated phase, where online flight websites were 15 years ago.

Over time, the online flight booking sector evolved into a long tail of 'amateur' players co-existing alongside a few players that, through superior execution and consolidation, evolved into category champions e.g. Expedia, bookers, lastminute.com. minicabit's aim is to become a category champion of our sector.

We don't see the various black cab/driver apps (hailo, uber) as direct rivals as their model focuses purely on optimising availability - not price comparison - of metered cabs, and not on the web. Their approach typically works in high population, key metropolitan cities, servicing local trips, hence their rollout to key capital cities internationally.

At the same time, we're seeing a couple of price comparison websites for minicabs arise who are seeking to position minicabs as alternatives to black cabs, mainly in London.

minicabit's mission is much broader, using its superior platform to target the long distance market, where no price comparison for cabs yet exists, whilst offering a larger scope for sizeable commission revenue. At the same time, we've established coverage across 30+ UK cities from the outset and are focused on bringing cab providers incremental, high value bookings they don't typically get on the phone.

This has enabled us to secure compelling marketing partnerships which help us expand at lower cost and lower risk.

Whilst we are conscious of even indirect competition, we remain focused on building out a superior platform to establish a clear lead vs. rivals.