VENTURE capitalists do not often shower nine-figure sums on French startups. That alone makes noteworthy the announcement on July 2nd that BlaBlaCar, an eight-year-old ride-sharing company from Paris, had raised $100m. Preqin, a research firm, says that only one other French firm has attracted more in one go in at least seven years. Just three other European startups have struck it so rich in 2014.As a newly twinkling star of the “sharing economy”, BlaBlaCar is unusual not just in hailing from Paris but in failing to hail from San Francisco. The leading lights of sharing—Airbnb, which can find you a room or a flat for a few nights, and Lyft and Uber, which can get you a ride across town—are all from the Californian city. San Francisco had a fortuitous mix of knotty problems (pricey hotels, a lack of taxis) and geeks eager to solve them.Unlike Lyft or Uber, BlaBlaCar arranges rides between cities, not within them. A driver may advertise that he is going from Paris to Brussels and is willing to take passengers. They would typically pay €20 ($27) for that trip, says Nicolas Brusson, one of BlaBlaCar’s founders—much less than the train fare. Good public transport in the cities at either end is essential, so that passengers can be picked up or dropped off at metro or bus stations. Europe suits this model better than America: Lyft’s founders began with intercity rides before...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1vBkDzF
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