India, a market that BlaBlaCar once shied away from, is now its largest market

Every few weekends, 21-year-old student Lavanya Jain opens the BlaBlaCar app to find a lift from Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi to his home in Kandhla, a small town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The 120-kilometre trip cost him about 500 Indian rupees, the equivalent of about $6. That’s a fraction of the 1,500-2,000 INR, or $17-23 USD, you’ll pay for a private taxi.

“If you’re looking for a fast, efficient, affordable and convenient way to travel — and you love chatting — you should basically check out BlaBlaCar,” Jin told TechCrunch, adding that he’s used the app about 40 to 50 times over the past two years.

Jain is one of millions of Indians who are turning to long-distance carpooling as a cheaper and more social way to get between cities. The increase has made India the company’s largest market worldwide, with an estimated 20 million passengers this year – an increase of almost 50% from the previous year. Based on these projections, BlaBlaCar’s market in India will exceed the 18 million passengers expected in Brazil and its home market of France.

For a company that closed its India office in 2017 after flagging interest, the turnaround has been astonishing.

The growth has largely come without marketing or a local team, driven instead by word of mouth, expanding mobile internet access, and the rise of digital payments and car ownership among India’s middle class.

Home to more than 700 million smartphone users, India has seen a sharp rise in digital payments, which now account for more than 99% of all transactions in the country.

At the heart of this transformation is the Indian government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, which processed about 19.6 billion transfers worth about INR 24.9 trillion (about US$284 billion) in September alone. Side-by-side car sales rose, reaching 4.73 million vehicles in 2024, up from 3.87 million the previous year – an increase of 5.2% year-on-year and an all-time high.

Other factors behind BlaBlaCar’s rapid growth in India include the country’s limited public transport capacity relative to its population of over 1.4 billion, and the steady expansion of road infrastructure that is improving connectivity between small towns, rural areas and major cities.

“We have a lot of examples of users who say: ‘Before, I would fly to a destination or take a train or not go at all – and now I can actually drive,’” Nicolas Brosson, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, said in an interview. “It takes three hours, and it’s a fun trip.”

BlaBlaCar first entered India in early 2015, setting up a local office in New Delhi. The company soon faced stiff competition from Uber and its local rival Ola, both of which were aggressively experimenting with and marketing car-sharing services. (Companies will end up suspending car-sharing services during coronavirus lockdowns.)

Desperate for more attention, BlaBlaCar pulled its local team in 2017. However, the app remained active – and in 2022, usage began to rise again. Since then, the number of users has grown from 4.3 million users in 2022 to an expected 20 million this year.

BlaBlaCar averaged about 1.1 million monthly active users in India this year, peaking at about 1.5 million in August. Nearly three-quarters of them are passengers, while the remaining 25% are drivers. India now accounts for about 33% of BlaBlaCar’s global car commuters, the company said.

On the trips side, BlaBlaCar recorded its strongest growth in India, with 13.5 million trips completed as of September 30, up from 9.1 million during the same period last year. Brazil remained slightly ahead, with 14 million trips this year compared to 11.7 million in 2023, while France ranked third with 5.6 million trips, largely flat from the previous year.

“For us, the center of gravity has shifted away from our primary markets in Western Europe toward places like Japan and Turkey — and increasingly India,” Bruson told TechCrunch.

The company said that although BlaBlaCar has not yet generated revenue from India, drivers on its platform earned around INR 713 million (about $8 million) in August alone. On average, drivers earn about $390 (about $4) per seat in India, with an average trip distance of 180 kilometers (about 112 miles).

In comparison, the average driver earns about 15 euros (about $17) in France, and about 6.5 euros (about $7) in Brazil, although trip distances are broadly similar in India and Brazil and shorter than the France average of about 250 kilometers (about 155 miles). This difference reflects lower domestic purchasing power and cost-sharing expectations in India, BlaBlaCar said.

Nearly 70% of BlaBlaCar’s Indian users are between the ages of 18 and 34, and about 95% of the activity is done through its mobile app. Nearly half of all trips in India take place along the country’s 15 busiest city routes, while the other half come from outside the top 150 corridors — evidence of their growing adoption beyond major metros and in smaller cities. Among the busiest routes are Pune-Thane and Pune-Nashik in Maharashtra, Bengaluru-Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, and several others connecting medium-sized urban centres.

Don’t rush to start making money

Despite all this growth, BlaBlaCar is not looking to enable monetization in India anytime soon.

“We’re in no rush to start charging or generating revenue in India. We’re focused on generating usage, and we’re up and running because we’ve done that in many markets,” Bruson told TechCrunch.

However, Bruson said BlaBlaCar plans to set up its local office in India and get its first employee by the end of this year or early next year.

BlaBlaCar does not view ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Ola as its competitors in India. Bruson described them as “demand-driven” products, while BlaBlaCar, he said, is “supply-driven.” Instead, the company sees people driving their own cars – or choosing readily available trains and buses – as their main alternatives.

Challenges on the way to success

BlaBlaCar still faces some challenges in India.

State regulations regarding car sharing are arcane, which has put the service under scrutiny in some cities. Some users, including Jain, have complained about difficulty reaching BlaBlaCar customer support, which often responds with automated messages. The company told TechCrunch that it runs a “hybrid model,” with a local outsourced team handling most of the day-to-day inquiries and a smaller group at its Paris headquarters to manage complex issues and quality checks.

BlaBlaCar introduced the Identity Verification feature in India to verify users’ identities through government-issued documents – a tool that was later rolled out globally. However, TechCrunch found that users can still book or post a ride even if their identity verification is incomplete.

“This is a deliberate design choice to make it easier for new members to interact with the platform,” the company said in response. “Identity verification is just one part of our broader trust and security framework; we do not rely on a single feature, but on multi-layered mechanisms that work together to build trust within our community.”

The company added that more than 70% of trips in India are made with drivers who have completed government ID verification. BlaBlaCar also displays user reviews and ratings and verifies accounts through phone numbers and email addresses.

“We actively encourage members to complete all verification steps, as fully verified profiles – with photo and ID – significantly increase their chances of finding carpools. Profiles lacking these elements tend to receive fewer bookings,” the company said.

Some BlaBlaCar users in India have also reported frustration when drivers or passengers cancel rides at the last minute, sometimes even after reaching the meeting point. Additionally, the app lacks a live location sharing feature, which Jain noted limits the use of BlaBlaCar for those trying to book rides on behalf of family members or friends.

BlaBlaCar has adapted its product to better suit Indian users, introducing features such as “meeting point logic” to facilitate coordination. Unlike countries like France, where there are dedicated car-sharing zones, India lacks fixed pickup zones. Drivers and passengers usually agree to meet at convenient places along the way, such as a gas station, or near a highway exit. The app now suggests and displays these locations using a combination of machine learning algorithms and user input, helping to reduce detours and align with existing on-ground infrastructure in India, the company said.

Globally, BlaBlaCar expects to reach about 150 million passengers this year, including users of its bus services, which operate in markets such as France but are not yet available in India. As BlaBlaCar expands its global footprint, India’s unexpected rise has put it at the heart of the company’s next phase of growth.