This past year was an interesting one for Uber.
The popular ride-hailing service gained a negative reputation in the public eye after it sabotaged rival ride-hailing startups, and Uber executive Emil Michael recommended digging up dirt on critical journalists. The popular ride-hailing startup still expanded to new levels of success though, receiving more than $3 billion in funding and expanding to more than 53 countries.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that executives from GrabTaxi, OlaCab and Flywheel, three of Uber's international rivals, told Buzzfeed News that they were currently in discussion about how to take on Uber's control of the market.
This desire to team up seems to correlate with the desires of a certain venture capital film Both GrabTaxi and OlaCab received funding from Softbank Capital, a venture capital firm from the U.S. GrabTaxi cofounder Brian Cu suspects that Softbank's choice to fund startups like theirs reflect an interest in a "global taxi alliance between like-minded apps."
The U.S.-based Flywheel has an interest in building a similar relationship. When Flywheel CFO Oneal Bhambani heard about the potential of a cab-hailing startup team-up, he wanted in. He eventually met with the CEOs of GrabTaxi and OlaCab to discuss the potential of creating ways for customers to use their apps across platforms. Cu and Bhambani both mentioned sharing knowledge and potentially cross-booking across the apps.
But why are these taxi-hailing apps so worried about Uber, since they use two different sources for drivers? According to Cu, the way Uber hires drivers is technically illegal. Uber drivers perform the same function as a taxi driver, but they don't have to operate under the same rules as taxi drivers. This unlawful action is the reason that the city of Portland sued Uber for operating their business despite not receiving approval from local officials.
At this time, the CEOs are still talking but haven't confirmed anything. If this turns into something, it could lead to some interesting innovations that will help rivals of Uber take on ride-sharing giant.
