How To Make an App Like Uber in 2021: Cost, Business Model, Features, Process, etc.
By: Sara Khan
Tags: JavaScript, React Native, Uber, Mobile App Development, Programming

Undoubtedly, the evolution of incredible taxi booking app development has taken the world by storm. And believe me, if you are a taxi app owner, then you may become a billionaire in the upcoming years.

With the fact that the ride-hailing market is expected to generate revenue of $31,094 million in 2021 and projected to grow at 15.81% CAGR and result in a volume of $55,924 million by 2025, it’s the right time to be a part of this evolving industry.

Wondering why there is a sudden shift in the statistics of the car-hailing industry?

The way people are moving around the places has been drastically changed. With the fact that the rising population is swiftly eating away the open spaces in urban cities, worsening the traffic conditions around and parking spaces are quickly going full, therefore, more and more car owners are inclining towards on-demand taxi booking services for hassle-free travel.

And in the wake of such a scenario, it is fair enough to predict that the future of the ride-hailing industry seems to be promising and at the boom.

While talking about the on-demand taxi booking services, Uber has emerged as the greatest inspiration among aspiring entrepreneurs and giving the right direction to the other startups. Its magnificent success and annual revenue in millions is the greatest reason that cab owners are coming up with a replica of this mobile app.

But, the bitter truth of the reality is they fail to survive!

If you are also thinking that entering the e-hailing industry is just about hiring the mobile app development company that can successfully replicate the app clone of Uber and you will start making the revenue of millions, then you are going to create a blunder for you.

Yes, you read it right!

While the existing players of the market like Uber, are already providing the best features to the market. And being a most reputed and trusted on-demand app, why should one rely on your app providing the same feature set?

This means, to become a successful player in the market, you need to:

Have a well-planned on-demand mobile application that aims to improve the services and solve maximum customer pain points.

Bring unique ideas, features, and functionalities to the app.

Test and probe into the less explored areas of the ride-hailing segment to cause a market shift.

But before you attempt anything groundbreaking, it’s always worthwhile to perform market research and analysis to gather valuable facts and determine the scope of your app idea.

If you are wondering how to kick-start your online taxi booking app like Uber in the right way, then this blog is for you.

Here are the Key Highlights of the Blog:

Perspectives of Taxi Booking App Market and Its Scope in the Global Market

How To Make Your Taxi Booking App Complete With Uber?

How To Build Your Taxi Booking App Like Uber With React Native?

How Much It Will Cost to Create a Ride-Sharing app like Uber?

Before we get into the tips of launching a winning taxi-booking app, the process of developing an Uber app, and the business model, it’s important to understand the scope and prospects for taxi apps in the global market.

Let’s begin with it!

Perspectives of Taxi Booking Mobile App Market- Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact And Future

The rising demand for ride-hailing and ride-sharing services has made the taxi booking industry one of the longest-running industries contributing to the world’s economy. The sudden surge in on-demand ride-booking services has successfully taken over the conventional taxi booking market.

Here are the statistics supporting our statement!

According to the survey report , a total of 15 million ride-hailing trips happen each day, which is expected to lift to the 100 million mark by 2030.

, a total of 15 million ride-hailing trips happen each day, which is expected to lift to the 100 million mark by 2030. 70% of passengers consider modern taxi booking services as a convenient and quick commuting feature.

consider modern taxi booking services as a convenient and quick commuting feature. In addition, the user penetration in the taxi booking industry is 21.7% in 2021 and is expected to hit 22.9% by 2025 .

In the ride-hailing and taxi segment, the number of users is expected to grow to $ 331.2 million users by 2025 .

The average revenue per user is expected to amount to $103.00 and 26% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2025.

In 2017, taxi booking apps like Uber, Lyft, Didi are capturing a significant taxi market share of more than 40%.

In the nutshell: The statistics are clearly portraying the rising graph of taxi booking services and due to such reasons, the number of the taxi-hailing mobile app will also grow. Still, before you get into the app development process or hire a mobile app developer, you can take a moment to conduct your research to gather your market share.

Before you head towards the tips to develop a taxi booking app, I would like you to know some real facts about Uber that made it a giant name in the industry.

Unlock the Real Statistics that Portrays The Success of Uber

Since its inception in 2013, Uber has started forming the benchmark in the field of the taxi booking industry and results in the most demanding taxi booking application.

Here are the statistics to consider:

With an outstanding app structure, the Uber app connects thousands of drivers to millions of gross bookings and generated revenue of $12 million in the recent quarter.

With the in-built GPS feature of the app, the company has an established presence in over 80+ countries worldwide and boasts of over 75 million active riders seamlessly.

With the support of excellent backend and frontend, uber has managed over 5 billion rides.

Now, the most important question comes to your mind is, how to complete your taxi booking app with Uber?

One simple way is to get partnered with a mobile app development company, experienced in creating taxi booking apps.

But, from the business point of view, we have discovered some tactics and tips while working on one of the taxi booking projects in the UAE. Since every market is different, though, it’s important to structure your app with the aim to closely meet the end needs of the market.

How To Make Your Taxi Booking App Compete To Uber?

When it comes to developing a taxi booking app, undoubtedly there are thousands of competitors to beat in the market. However, with over 91 million monthly active users, acquiring 65% of the market share, uber will remain a strong competitor for all taxi-hailing startups. So that’s why here we get straight into the tips that help you compete with Uber.

1. Create a Unique Value Proposition For Your App

The majority of the businesses are mistaken here by assuming that replicating the app clone of Uber will help them generate millions of revenue. Instead, your app for taxi booking service should be attractive for both drivers and riders. And for that, you need to create a value proposition for both sides.

Here are some clues to be used for customers:

Your app should motivate the passengers to use your app by offering something unique that your competitors do not have. And that might be:

Grabbing the free rides or discounts on certain occasions.

A fixed price for common destinations such as airports or railway stations.

In-app multiple payment gateways for cashless transactions.

Determining the estimated duration and cost of the ride.

The option to track the driver arriving.

On the other side, how would you attract the drivers for your app if there are many competitors in the market? Here are a few tips:

Flexible working hours with bonus earnings

Easy procedure of mobile payment

Keeping the entry simple for drivers with zero investment to join the business.

Opportunity to earn more money during peak workload

Insurance coverage to make them feel secure being associated with your company.

If you have hired an app development company, then you can easily discover much more options as they have been into the market and understand the changing needs of the clients as well. Therefore they better serve your unique ideas to add value to your app.

2. Choosing Any Random Technology Will Crash Your Project

Since its inception in 2013, Uber was not that full-fledged app. But with the changing demand of the market and users, they have frequently scaled up their app with additional features and increasing user base.

Launching applications of such complexity involve both client and server-side development and they require a central server to seamlessly manage the several interactions between users, to perform complex calculations, and data storage functions. So one thing here that all businesses have to make sure of is to hire an app developer that can help you build an excellent backend of the app.

But, most businesses often overlook the fact that a beautiful frontend with a poor backend is the biggest failure for your app.

So here are the technologies that we recommend as a pro tip while creating a taxi booking app like Uber:

Technologies to Choose For Backend Development:

The backend system should be developed of:

Node.js;

Python;

Redis;

MongoDB;

Go;

MySQL.

Proposed Technologies for the Frontend development

Here, the choice of the technologies greatly varies on your decision whether you need to build a native taxi booking app or cross-platform.

A native app will be developed by using specific programming languages such as Java/C++ for Android or Objective-C/Swift/C++ for iOS.

A cross-platform or Hybrid app development using React Native, Flutter or HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

In the context of a taxi booking app, using the cross-platform app development frameworks would be the best deal to make your app behave natively while developed with the same codebase.

3. Explode To The Areas Where Uber Has Not Yet Reached!

Never aim to limit your app service to restricted areas. If your budget allows you, then make your app work universally and Uber’s success has proved it. But the surprising part is, Uber still hasn’t covered every country on the globe and that’s where emerging entrepreneurs can take the momentum.

For example, locations like Brunei, Oman, Malta, Iceland or Cyprus have not yet started with Uber yet.

So now you have an idea on how to beat Uber and where to get started!

But how to make a profit from your taxi booking app and make a profit from it?

4. Business Model- Don’t Settle For Single Source Of Earning

No matter how much effort you have poured into the mobile app development solution and what budget you have invested in if it is not generating any revenue for your business.

If you are considering the revenue model of the Uber-like taxi-booking mobile app then keep in in mind it has two sources to earn money:

The app charges a service fee from the drivers in the form of commission that amounts to 20 to 25% of the total ride cost.

Secondly, it conducts marketing campaigns with other businesses.

Apart, here are a few other ways of making additional money:

In the case of aggregator apps, charge a certain amount of service fees from the users and passengers for using this app and booking a taxi through it. These charges are kept hidden and added to the final amount itself.

Make money through the cancellation fees. Once a user cancels a ride, they have to pay a certain amount of money as a cancellation fee.

You can collaborate with multiple brands and promote them effectively on the homepage of your app. In case if you are not charging any money from these third-party businesses then other ways of earning like cost-per-click or cost per mile can be used.

5. Integrate Advanced Features and Functionalities to Your App

Before we dig deeper into understanding the features and functionalities of the taxi booking app, here’s an important piece of information about Uber that you should know. They use two separate apps for passengers and drivers that have been maintained by the super admin dashboard.

But be careful, this segment of your app can be the most expensive phase of your app development. The more features you pick to develop, it adds up the more hours to the development.

So the startups can choose to begin with MVP integrated with all the basic features that too starting with the $10,000 to $12,000+ app development cost.

Here are the basic features that are required to be integrated into a basic to moderate app structure.

But, if you afford to invest a higher budget and want to launch an app with advanced features, then here is the list of advanced features that are recommended to integrate into your app.

Advanced Features to be Incorporated in a Taxi Booking App To Add An Edge To Your Business

Driver Queue Algorithm: This is the most important and advanced feature that assists taxi service owners to get to know about the total number of drivers and taxis available in one place so that through admin they can manage the booking for a cab accordingly.

This is the most important and advanced feature that assists taxi service owners to get to know about the total number of drivers and taxis available in one place so that through admin they can manage the booking for a cab accordingly. Manage Pricing: The cab booking prices are kept fluctuating depending upon the time, day or demand of the cab. So with surge pricing features, app owners can increase the pricing on certain days because of high demand and make better profits.

The cab booking prices are kept fluctuating depending upon the time, day or demand of the cab. So with surge pricing features, app owners can increase the pricing on certain days because of high demand and make better profits. Heat Map View : With this feature in your app, taxi booking app owners can determine the busiest hours of the day and accordingly be able to alot more cars and drivers to that specific location.

: With this feature in your app, taxi booking app owners can determine the busiest hours of the day and accordingly be able to alot more cars and drivers to that specific location. In-App Calling With Number Masking: In case you are not interested in sharing your personal contact details with drivers or vice-versa, then you can hire a mobile app developer that can help you create an in-app calling feature.

In case you are not interested in sharing your personal contact details with drivers or vice-versa, then you can that can help you create an in-app calling feature. Real Time Analytics: This is the most critical feature for the app owners as it allows them to understand how well their app is performing and how many people are using their app and at what point in time.

This is the most critical feature for the app owners as it allows them to understand how well their app is performing and how many people are using their app and at what point in time. Multi-Lingual Support: It can be an incredible feature in your app which allows people from other countries as well to book taxis without the hassle of communicating with the people and asking some to book them a taxi.

It can be an incredible feature in your app which allows people from other countries as well to book taxis without the hassle of communicating with the people and asking some to book them a taxi. Multiple Payment Options: Add the feature to your app to make a payment through multiple options including Paypal, credit/debit card and more. Also with the help of software development companies, you can adopt advanced payment options including online banking, mobile wallets and more. This will make your app very handy and useful.

Add the feature to your app to make a payment through multiple options including Paypal, credit/debit card and more. Also with the help of software development companies, you can adopt advanced payment options including online banking, mobile wallets and more. This will make your app very handy and useful. Push Notifications: Keep your users informed and notify them at each stage of booking. These push notifications also come into use when the user has to be notified about the new offers or discounts being launched by the app.

Keep your users informed and notify them at each stage of booking. These push notifications also come into use when the user has to be notified about the new offers or discounts being launched by the app. Social Sign in/Sign Up: With social media account integration, it becomes easier for users to quickly get started with your app without having to go through with the detailed app registration process. The app can provide access by using the basic information of the social media account.

With social media account integration, it becomes easier for users to quickly get started with your app without having to go through with the detailed app registration process. The app can provide access by using the basic information of the social media account. Fare Calculation: This feature will allow users to quickly calculate the cost of the ride that they are booking for. In fact, one can get to know the amount they would have to pay on the ride before going to avail it.

This feature will allow users to quickly calculate the cost of the ride that they are booking for. In fact, one can get to know the amount they would have to pay on the ride before going to avail it. Bill Splitting: Will it possible to split the bill into two and make the payment of your share from your respective account? Well, it is possible with the bill split feature. This feature will enable them to pay their share separately and keep things transparent.

Will it possible to split the bill into two and make the payment of your share from your respective account? Well, it is possible with the bill split feature. This feature will enable them to pay their share separately and keep things transparent. Multiple Bookings: Gone are those days when one could book a cab by using one account. The modern taxi booking apps can have the feature that enables its users to schedule multiple bookings for themselves, family and friends at the same time.

Gone are those days when one could book a cab by using one account. The modern taxi booking apps can have the feature that enables its users to schedule multiple bookings for themselves, family and friends at the same time. Book A Cab for Friend: You can use your app to book a cab for your friend all by entering that friend’s pickup and drop. Isn’t exciting!

You can use your app to book a cab for your friend all by entering that friend’s pickup and drop. Isn’t exciting! Smartwatch Access: Now smartwatches are the new trends of the town to access everything with the tap on the watch, though, mobile app development companies have even made it possible to book a cab with your watch as well. It is easier to manage your cab booking from your smartwatch and making payments through the same.

The list of advanced features doesn’t end here. The development cost of the taxi booking app with all such advanced features can lift up to $20k to $25k+.

In a nutshell: With above mentioned tips and suggestions, you have an idea of what kind of applications you need to plan to develop. So now let’s resume to the main question of how to develop a taxi booking app with simple and easy steps.

How To Develop a Taxi Booking App Like Uber Using React Native?

To create an app like Uber, you and your taxi app development team should go through the following app development stages:

Stage 1: Technical Audit and Research

Before you get started with the development process, make sure to evaluate your business app idea and analyze the market to determine further scope and opportunities for revenue generation.

Secondly, gather requirements for taxi mobile app development and improvements that can help you discover new ways to create a better product.

Next, design the work scope and develop the project road map and the realistic budget.

Stage 2: Creation of Taxi Booking App Documentation

Now here you need a technical team that will create detailed technical specifications of production functionality, the app architecture and tech stacks to be used in the app development process. They will help you create a project requirement with general functional requirements including how the product must work and what features and functionalities are required.

Stage 3: Developing Your Taxi Booking App Like Uber

The rule of thumb is to divide each phase of coding into different tasks and allot it to the concerned teams based on priority and with a real-time limit. The taxi-booking app developer will conduct testing at the end-stage to fix bugs. And if you are developing it with React Native then you can leverage the hot reload feature that allows you to instantly fix the errors in the live codes.

Stage 4: The Taxi Booking App Deployment

Finally, deploy your taxi booking app to the app store, Google Play or other app marketplaces, so that users can easily download the app and be able to get started with your app. In most cases, app development company provide the support of app deployment with additional app deployment fees. To avoid chasing with any hassle, the app development team can help you deploy it.

How Much Does It Cost To Develop a Taxi Booking App Like Uber?

The process of developing a taxi booking app like Uber starts with building a minimum viable product that meets both demand and supply along with a dashboard with the minimum functionality. It would be a great deal for startups to go for this option as it can be started with the lowest budget including $10,000 to $12,000+.

After the launch of the first version, you can test the strength of the idea, market facilities and end-users needs and upgrade it with advanced features.

Here are the few advanced features along with a cost split that you can consider for the advanced version of your app.

Still how much does it cost you overall? The simple way to calculate the total cost of the app development project is to calculate the number of hours with the per hour cost of the developer.

And the average hourly cost of the developer is greatly varied according to the different locations as mentioned below:

India : $15 to $22/hr

: $15 to $22/hr UAE : $15 to 22/hr

: $15 to 22/hr USA : $50 to $150/hr

: $50 to $150/hr Europe: $80 to $150/hr

To get the real estimation of the taxi booking app development, it is worth getting in touch with the app development company. They will evaluate the app idea and accordingly suggest you the best options.

Ending Note

To end this blog, it is fair enough to say that Uber has acquired the biggest segments of the taxi booking industry. But still, there is room and space for emerging entrepreneurs. All they need is to hire a mobile app development company that can help in identifying the right niche and focus on building a unique taxi booking app along with the profitable monetization strategy integration.

Hopefully, with this blog, you have picked all the major points and get an idea about the app development cost. But still, we recommend you to get in touch with the experts for solutions that best fit your business needs.

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