A new RideShare app is on the way. Zareou has held its first drivers event on Monday 20th October 2019. Drivers who went there have attended a detailed presentation of the RideShare company concept and business model. The mission of Zareou London is clear. Give a better share of the cake to drivers. Hence its slogan, “Where drivers come first”.
The company intends to launch in the next few months. First, Zareou London will start with a soft launch involving a limited number of drivers. A number of 1000 drivers is the target for this phase. An official launch at the start of 2020 is the next step. Alongside a serious advertisement campaign, the RideShare app is willing to dispatch 5000 drivers at this stage.
An ambitious affiliate program
Zareou’s concept is unique in the RideShare industry. It is based on an referral affiliation program. Each Zareou driver and rider can refer prospect riders and drivers. Every time that the referred rider or driver makes a trip, the referee will get a percentage of the ride’s fare. Indeed, Zareou is not only about RideShare but also Revenue share.
Every driver and rider can refer each other. The value of the referral is based on the shared commission that Zareou charges after each ride. Each time that a referred rider or driver performs a trip, the referee gets 10% of the 20% shared commission. For instance, if the shared commission is of £30, the referee will get £3 as referral income.
That way of earning, called passive income, is fairly new in the RideShare industry. As for now, the only passive sources of income available are the one-off bonuses. The bonuses that drivers get when they refer drivers and sometimes, riders. With Zareou, this passive income is unlimited as long as the referred driver or rider completes trips.
The vision of its founder, Micheal Jareou
Micheal Jareou, Founder and CEO of Zareou, told us that he wants to bring a change to the RideShare industry. As a life time American entrepreneur, he noticed that “most drivers were not happy when I interviewed more than 600 of them around the world. The majority of drivers I talked to had complains” Thinking about that, he concluded that “there must be a solution to these problems. That is when I thought about Zareou”.
“This business is like riding a bicycle. We must have a balance between the driver on one side and the customer on the other side. If we focus only on the drivers, we will lose balance and crash. If we focus only on the customers and not the drivers, we will crash. So we created a very unique loyalty system for the customers that was never done before. We pay on the family and friends they refer to us. We also pay on the drivers they refer to us. The idea is to keep the loyalty of the customer.”
Pricing and advertisement
Zareou is going to align its fares to the market, £1.25 per mile, 0.15 per minute and a base fare of £2.50. However, we are still not sure about any Uber like Clean Air Fee adjustments. Passengers will be able to pay in cash or by debit/credit card. Drivers will be charged a commission of 25%. As detailed above, the shared revenue is based on a commission of 20%. The difference of 5% is for administration costs.
Furthermore, passengers will get a £10 credit once they create an account on the app. The main benefit for passengers is the possibility for them to refer riders and drivers. As explained earlier, they will get a residual income each time that every referred rider/driver completes a trip. This can be used as credit/money-off for trips with Zareou.
According to Michael Jaareou, advertisement is going to be mainly on Social Media. Therefore, Zareou do not intend to massively advertise as “all our drivers and passengers are going to recruit for us.”
From Zareou London to the rest of the world
London is the first stone of the Zareou project. Michael Jareou wants to build “a global network where drivers and riders can benefit and recruit each other to be part of this network”.
Medellin in Colombia and Baghdad in Iraq should be the next cities to see the RideShare app operating. The ambition of the company is to expand globally to other countries and cities afterwards. The CEO told us that Zareou’s goal “is to take to as many countries as we can in the world”.
Apart from its worldwide expansion, other services are planned as part of a diversification strategy. Indeed, Zareou is keen to develop food delivery and executive services for airports and hospitals. Until then, we are looking forward to seeing the company makes his debuts in London.
