What is Lyft? Lyft Review

Lyft Basics

Lyft and Uber are both leading taxi-hailing apps in the United States. Lyft's product model is relatively simpler. Private car owners with spare resources can work part-time as taxi drivers to pick up passengers and earn extra money. After each "grab an order", the private car owner will hang a big pink mustache on the front of the car, which has become Lyft's most eye-catching logo.

Lyft's History

In November 2014, the U.S. taxi app announced that it would launch the AA payment function. When users open the taxi app, they can click the "Share the fare" button and find friends in the phone's address book to share the fare. Currently, up to five friends can share the fare.

In March 2015, American ride-hailing service Lyft announced that it would add user profiles to its app to address trust issues between drivers and passengers and improve service safety.

In May 2015, Lyft, an American taxi-hailing app, launched two new social function tests in San Francisco: after two strangers ride in a car together, Lyft allows them to evaluate each other; if both parties give each other positive comments, then both parties can see the comments they gave to each other, so that both parties will have the opportunity to keep in touch.

In June 2015, Lyft acquired and hired a team from the instant messaging app Leo, whose co-founders Carlos Whitt, Austen Broyles and Jisi Guo joined Lyft.

In May 2016, Lyft announced that it would test a service that allows users to reserve a ride 24 hours in advance, starting with San Francisco.

In August 2016, Lyft will add a "temporary change of destination" feature to its app. This feature will allow users to add additional stops from the app while on a ride.

In March 2017, Lyft launched a new developer program that allows users to "call" taxis for people who don't have the Lyft app or even a smartphone, while also providing bill processing, notification push, user feedback, etc. This service will be connected to the open API launched last year and become part of it.

In November 2017, Lyft, the second largest taxi-hailing app in the United States, announced its entry into the field of driverless cars. After a period of silence, they obtained permission from the California government to test their driverless cars on public roads in California.

In December 2017, the ride-hailing app Lyft and Aira, a company that serves the blind or low-vision community, announced that they would work together to provide more convenient travel services to the visually impaired.

In mid-2018, its fixed-route commuter buses will be put into operation in Palo Alto in the Bay Area of ​​the United States;

By 2019, it will be able to operate at night and in rainy conditions;

By 2020, there will be 500 self-driving vehicles on the road, passengers can pay to ride, and there will be "safety drivers" to take over the vehicle in case of emergencies.

Lyft's financing

In April 2014, Lyft, an American carpooling app, completed a $250 million Series D funding round. It will use the funds to expand into new markets including New York and overseas cities.

March 2015, Rakuten, Inc. (TOKYO:4755) announced today that it has agreed to purchase an 11.9% stake in Lyft.

In May 2015, Lyft completed a $150 million Series E financing round.

In January 2016, Lyft completed its latest round of financing of US$1 billion, with General Motors as the investor.

In April 2017, Lyft confirmed the completion of a new round of financing, with a final financing amount of US$600 million, and the company's valuation reached US$7.5 billion.

In October 2017, Google's parent company Alphabet announced that its investment arm CapitalG would lead a new round of $1 billion in financing for the ride-hailing app Lyft. CapitalG partner David Lawee will also join the Lyft board of directors.

In November 2017, Lyft, an American ride-sharing startup, received $500 million in equity financing from Google.

In March 2018, Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International announced that it would invest $200 million in ride-sharing company Lyft to jointly produce self-driving cars.

In June 2018, Lyft received $600 million in financing and was valued at $15.1 billion.

In March 2019, information released by US IPO research company IPOBoutique.com showed that ride-hailing company Lyft had set its initial public offering (IPO) price at US$72, at the high end of its adjusted offering price range.