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Irish taxi app Lynk to become a 'Riide' in push for global success

The taxi-booking app will go through a re-brand as it heads for the UK and US markets.

IRISH TAXI APP Lynk is about to push into the UK market before backing that up with a move to the US. But it may not be instantly recognisable to local users by the time it arrives there.

Instead of the familiar name seen on Dublin cabs since Lynk’s launch in February last year, the company will get a re-brand in both countries as ‘Riide’ after the intervention of some PR consultants.

“I’m not sure what the thinking is, they think Lynk is too common a name in IT circles,” CEO and founder Noel Ebbs told Fora.

The company already has around 12,500 drivers signed up to its network in the UK ahead of its launch in the market this summer, although it will be going live there around six months later than initially planned. A further Irish rollout in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Belfast is also underway.

Those moves will be followed with a big pitch for the US east coast, where it has 5,000 drivers signed up in Washington, New York and Boston, late this year or early in 2017, assuming all goes to plan.

However unlike its very deep-pocketed competitors in the international markets, including the famously combative Uber, Lynk is not planning to spend hundreds of millions buying up a share of the car-hailing market.

“We feel there’s another way to do this, the market is already there – it doesn’t need to be reinvented. It just needs to be updated,” Ebbs said.

Lynk Taxi App...Repro Free. Thursday 30th October 2014.  Picture Lynk founder Noel Ebbs Jason Clarke Photography Jason Clarke Photography

The competition

The company’s budget for launch in the UK will be €12.5 million over the coming year and it claims a ready-made customer network of 1 million, based on its back-end software already being installed with taxi providers.

Lynk also differs from competitors in the taxi-booking space, and both here and in the UK the big one is Hailo, in the people it targets and how it makes its money.

Rather than taking a cut of each journey booked through its app, which would come out of the individual driver’s share, Lynk charges taxi companies or drivers’ co-ops a membership or licensing fee for use of its software.

It is also focused on corporate customers with its new ‘Lynk for business’ offering, which promises extra bells and whistles like the ability to provide firms with shared taxis across disparate parts of their company networks.

So if, for example, several employees from separate departments in one large firm are unwittingly heading to the airport at similar times, Lynk’s software can cut costs by coordinate their bookings to put them in the same car, Ebbs said.

“We have a very, very simple model. The rollout is very simple – what’s allowing us to do this so cheaply is that we can roll out to existing taxi businesses that are there, but that have no way of challenging the major international apps. But now they do.”

Uber TfL Petition London Uber has been causing major headaches for taxi companies Yui Mok / PA Wire Yui Mok / PA Wire / PA Wire

The taxi-sharing feature puts Lynk in the same hunting ground as the billion-dollar apps, although with the potential cost burden of providing its service in a metered, regulated cab – rather than a cheaper private car from a provider like Uber.

However, in Europe at least, Ebbs said he doesn’t see a major threat to licensed taxi services from what he calls the ‘grey market’.

“It’s very different to the US, where it was the perfect storm for that (ridesharing) business model. We have very strong regulations here – like it or not, we’re Europeans, we like our rules and we like our boundaries. We’ve grown up in an EU environment where even the shape of a banana is regulated.”

Taxi drivers protest London cabbies protest against Uber Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire / PA Wire

Back in Ireland

Meanwhile back in Ireland, Lynk has delivered 2 million trips and has a network of 2,500 taxis. That still makes it a relatively small player compared to Hailo, which said it recorded 5 million trips last year.

The company behind Lynk, Net Global Taxis, which ran the Global Taxis brand, was already profitable before the app-based service was launched, its accounts show.

While it is yet to file paperwork for the period since last February, Ebbs said he expected to make “a small profit” this year. The company is also expected to beef up its headcount, which includes 70 staff in Dublin, around 140 in the UK and smaller number in the US.

Ebbs said Lynk had enough funding to fuel its growth into the first half of next year, although after mid-2017 he expected to need a financial kick-start to keep going.

“It’s a really exciting time for us; it’s about six months late, but better late than never,” he said.

Written by Peter Bodkin and posted on Fora a new business publication for Irish startups and SMEs.

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23 Comments
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    Mute Jimmyjoe Wallace
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:07 PM

    Yeah like the Americans destroyed their stockpile, does anyone really belive that?

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:30 PM

    @Jimmyjoe Wallace:

    They haven’t, at least not all of it. The US still has over 500 tonnes of chemical weapons that are scheduled to be destroyed in the coming years.

    The US and Russia came to an agreement regarding the destruction of Cold War era chemical weapons and both countries have destroyed over 90% of their stockpiles. If either country wasn’t fulfilling it’s promises regarding the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles we’d know about it.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Feb 24th 2017, 5:27 PM

    I love the hypocrisy of some people

    Not a mention of the Russians who had and may still have the biggest chemical and biological stockpile in history
    It’s only bad when the US does it, for some people

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    Mute Brian M
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    Feb 25th 2017, 8:17 AM

    @Jason Culligan – How would we know either party wasn’t fulfilling it’s it’s promises RE: destruction of chemical weapons?? Who oversee’s and ensures it has been carried out on both sides??

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Feb 24th 2017, 2:10 PM

    Well, this advertising feature has certainly worked on me! Where can I buy this stuff?

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    Mute Patrick Gough
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:12 PM

    I can’t believe a communist leader would do such a thing. surely communist good capitalist bad. as the aaa/pbp

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    Mute Eoghan Holland
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:20 PM

    @Patrick Gough: Yes Patrick. This horrific inhuman chemical was created by communists as the article clearly states :P

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:34 PM

    @Eoghan Holland:

    A quick google search shows that the USSR also produced weaponised VX. They may not have invented it, but they did make it.

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    Mute Eoghan Holland
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:39 PM

    @Jason Culligan: Fair point Jason. Not going to argue with you on it :) – It was just a little irresistible as Patrick here somehow has transformed his dislike of a political party into a moot point and i just thought it would be fun to counter it. I wouldn’t advocate north korean policies or assign myself to any political force, just thought i’d see how the straw man faired with a wee flame…

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Feb 24th 2017, 5:30 PM

    Actually look closely at AAAPBP economic policies it mentions ‘direct allocation’ of goods by the state as a future goal

    Something the NKs are meant to have (hasn’t worked) and their lit is filled with references to a planned economy

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    Mute Peter Hargan
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:11 PM

    Would that be the same family of organophosphate That was used in sheep dip and plug in air fresheners not so long ago

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:22 PM

    @Peter Hargan: It was Kim’s farts in a cloth?

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    Mute BogumilM
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    Feb 24th 2017, 4:07 PM

    15 years of the war with terrorism, but not with Kim. No oil in NK.

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    Mute Darren Cooney
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:04 PM

    Guinness farts are toxic too.

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    Mute Alanine Pipeline
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:07 PM

    You’d know…cooney…

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Feb 24th 2017, 8:09 PM

    So herewith evidence that NoKo has WMD. Will the imminent US invasion be televised?

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    Mute Kerry Templar
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    Feb 24th 2017, 4:14 PM

    ’10 times more powerful as…’ not ’10 times as powerful as’.

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    Mute June Kennedy
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    Feb 24th 2017, 3:34 PM

    If the two girls accused had the nerve gas on their hands and rubbed it in his face, how are they still alive

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Feb 24th 2017, 3:45 PM

    One of them was vomiting and I’ll after the attack so it is suspected she may have been in touch with a tiny amount. It appears from the CCTV footage that they rubbed his face with cloths. If only one side of the cloth was contaminated it would have lessened the risk to them.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Feb 24th 2017, 5:36 PM

    Because the dose makes the poison

    There’s cyanide in apples but not in a high enough dose to kill you

    If you took 4 solphadene tablets at once now you’d not die but if we’re taking 100 at once you’d get toxic levels of paracetamol for some people.
    Just like radiation (we encounter it every day) it’s a matter of how much

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    Mute Thosj Carroll
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:06 PM

    China is suspected of supplying deadly toxic to North Korea….

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Thosj Carroll: For coal???

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    Mute B9xiRspG
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    Feb 24th 2017, 2:50 PM

    @Thosj Carroll: And the US supplied nukes to Israel……

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    Mute Alan Hickey
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    Feb 24th 2017, 9:16 PM

    Weapons of mass destruction! Means the Americans have a reason to go in now just like Iraq

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    Mute Fred Conlan
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    Feb 24th 2017, 9:24 PM

    Jeez! Arnt you all SO INFORMED!!!!

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Feb 24th 2017, 1:20 PM

    His wee mad brother, might be something to cause heart attacks. GMO’s like a virus that will only kill certain people with certain genetic markers, what a thought?

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