By purchasing Gett’s British activities for around $55 million (€47 million), Lyft is continuing its entry into Europe that began a few months earlier with the takeover of Free Now’s London activities. Far from the major offensives of the early 2010s, when ride-hailing was deployed through massive subsidies and the conquest of market share. Lyft arrives on a continent where positions are taken and rules are toughened.
Buy back licenses, not users
Uber largely dominates the European market, Bolt is progressing quickly there, and regulatory frameworks (licensing, social compliance, relations with taxis) have considerably increased the cost of setting up from scratch.
Lyft gets around the obstacle by using already established structures. Gett, despite mediocre financial results in recent years, has assets, with a long-standing presence in London, a direct link with the black cabs, and a corporate clientele. A regulatory and relational infrastructure that Lyft could not have quickly reproduced on its own.
London as a testing ground
Especially since London is a strategic location, the city concentrates high volumes, demanding regulations and often tense cohabitation between taxis and VTCs. By inheriting Gett’s relationship with licensed taxis, Lyft accesses a segment that traditional VTC platforms struggle to capture.
London could serve as a laboratory, because if Lyft manages to combine traditional taxis and VTC on the same platform, the model could be transposed elsewhere in Europe.
European fragmentation, obstacle or lever?
Europe remains a fragmented market which has long discouraged entrants. Each country has its rules, its case law, its balances between historical operators and digital platforms. By proceeding through local acquisitions, the company each time inherits an already validated regulatory system, established relationships with the authorities and operational knowledge of the field. It is no longer a question of forcing entry into a market, but of integrating and optimizing heterogeneous assets.
The days when ride-hailing burned capital to grow are also a gone era. Several players have withdrawn from markets deemed unviable, investors are demanding accountability, and acquisition opportunities are increasing.
Lyft’s strategy is to buy assets with the aim of focusing less on volume growth and more on the ability to operate a limited scope efficiently, a more industrial logic than that which has prevailed in the sector until now.
Enough to worry Uber and Bolt?
Uber remains far ahead, in both awareness and coverage. Bolt continues its expansion, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Lyft cannot claim to catch up with them in the short term.
So the company is instead looking for blind spots: the relationship with traditional taxis, B2B offers, certain urban niches. This approach takes time and involves delicate trade-offs, starting with the question of the brand. Should we impose the Lyft name or keep local brands, better identified by users?
A construction site still very open
Lyft’s European presence remains embryonic; while acquisitions provide a basis, everything remains to be assembled: technical unification, harmonization of services, consistency of the offer. If the Gett operation, on its own, does not change the balance of power in the market, it could prove significant if Lyft succeeds in expanding the model in its other locations.
