We all know how mobile apps are a godsend when it comes to travel and helping us travel our travel routes from location to location. However, many times these apps can seriously cause local car dealers to lose out on huge amounts of money. City dwellers usually switch up between apps to help them immerse themselves within a city experience, as best they can.
Nowadays apps are combining the entire experience within one experience. Even the best online casinos in the UK have opted for applications to enhance experience over mobile phone gaming. However, unifying all accessibility within one platform can be troublesome for business in other sectors outside of gambling, as you will see within this article. The impacts of such apps are creating great competition and putting people out of business as we know it. One app on the market right now called Whim, aims to unite all the sectors of business, without singling out major businesses from the equation.
Whim aims to persuade users to trade their keys for a car, for more environmentally friendly alternatives that offer multiple transportation options. The environmental impact is believed to massively lessen the impact that transport has on the environment, which currently stands at 24% related CO2 emissions.
Car competition
Whim knows that the car competition of options like Uber, and other related taxiing companies, it certainly will be difficult to take the attention of users towards such a unified application. Even for those that own a car, it would mean taking away that feeling and sense of independence that comes with having this method of transportation. Many users enjoy keeping their freedom and would not want to take up public transport, no matter what factors you throw at the situation i.e. cheaper fuel cost savings and so on.
Targeting car users will be the biggest mission of the Whim app to date, no matter how many luxury hired cars or public transport substitutes you put in the users way, nothing beats the choice of your own car and peace of mind really, does it? However, the app has seen response from users, with the addition of the electric scooters added into the mix. There is nothing quite like exploring a city, from the freedom of a scooter. Locations around the world have already demonstrated the popularity of this option, with Helsinki, Brussels and Berlin being the major hotspots of this successful initiative. It has become the way of enticing tourists massively.
Helsinki also developed other alternatives towards the public transport system, especially when it comes to renewable transport energy. Whim has made it known that they wish to integrate the more environmentally friendly transport options as they become more widely available in time. However, getting rid of car ownership is the biggest option and goal for the maturation of their market. As of right now, it is believed that the global mobility and transport service market will increase from $4.7 billion, all the way to $70 billion by 2030. Going green is certainly on the map!
Greener travel
While the industry is still considered pretty small and in its infancy, the International Transport Forum have said that mobility services need to gather within the next year, to set aims to counteract the negative environmental effects that come with urbanisation. There is no secret that locations around the world need to operate with greener outputs and universally come together to ensure that it happens. It all comes down to the public and them consciously making the choice to opt for public transport, over their own vehicle usage.
It has already been successfully demonstrated around the world, with locations like Helsinki, that have reduced their CO2 emissions by 12% within the decade. With the additions of the Whim app, we can see it more possible and feasible for people to consciously come forward in wanting to be a part of the green solution. On the other hand, there will be many questions that need to be addressed such as the freedom of wanting to go out, anywhere any time. How can that realistically be achieved outside of peak transportation working hours for example? Transport always lowers in frequency during off-peak travelling hours, meaning freedom is not a consistent solution with Whim, just yet.
MaaS movement
Competitive providers like Citymapper for example, have recently launched an initiative called the travel pass for London commuters. This makes it a direct competitor for the upcoming Whim application, and being that they are aware of what the market holds, you can say that they are being massively backed up by huge investors, with examples such as BP, Mitsubishi and Toyota. It has been made apparent that over $60 million has been invested within Whim thus far, to conquer other European cities and Asian markets like Tokyo.
As Whim slowly takes on the aim of expansion with huge backing investors, the question that remains now is, will they manage to overcome and tackle huge transport foundations like Citymapper, which are already the comfort apps of many travellers today? Time will definitely tell where their strategies will take them, and how they will deal with their competition.
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