Rixi Giving Tough Competition to Uber in Lahore

As we know that Uber has recently entered Pakistani market by launching its services in major cities of the country, Lahore and Karachi. Interestingly, there are some local rivals of Uber that are also progressing with good speed e.g. Rixi, Carmudi etc.

Rixi, a small startup of Adnan Khawaja, is doing wonders as it is facilitating public by providing them with cheap auto rides that can be book just through SMS. What is so unique about Rixi? Rixi is a Rickshaw ride that one can book without even having a smartphone as it entirely relies on older phone’s SMS service.

Rixi Giving Tough Competition to Uber in Lahore

What’s So Different about Rixi?

The fundamental idea of Rixi is The business case of Rixi is quite successful due to its some very mind blowing strategies while keeping in mind the Lahori market; where international players like Careem and Uber are already doing very well. Following points make Rixi quite different from other players:

• Due to the socio-economic state of large part of population, most people only use Rickshaws due to affordability and their ability to navigate in the narrow and crowded streets of Lahore.
• On other side, the Rickshaw drivers are also very comfortable with this service because it is quite easy for them to do their jobs via simple SMS service. Majeed Ghauri, the Union Head of Rickshaws for Rixi puts this in words:

“Rickshaw drivers do not know anything about these online applications, which represents roughly 60,000-70,000 of Lahore’s Rickshaws. They simply want their daily wages.”

• Only 21% of Lahore’s population uses data packs on the smartphones which means that the rest of 79% people still use old phones for messaging purpose.

Keeping in mind this situation, a rickshaw ride is a win-win case for both customers and service providers.

How Rixi Really Works?

The service, Rixi uses mobile phone towers to know locations of rickshaw drivers. Then they use that location to match it with passengers’ messaged locations. And finally they send the nearest rickshaw to pick up the passenger.

The founder, Khawaja claims that:

“Uber cannot cater to as many customers in Pakistan as it does it more technologically-advanced cities may not be valid forever. We continue to explore products that would stimulate demand … whether that is a rickshaw, whether that is a chopper.”

Rixi’s Fact book:

• Rixi uses old feature phones and simple SMS service to book rides
• Around 1 Lac Rickshaws are successfully registered with Rixi
• Almost, 100 rides are booked per day on Rixi