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Lyft

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Lyft, Inc.
Company typePublic
IndustryVehicle for hire
FoundedJune 9, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-09) (as Zimride)
FoundersLogan Green
John Zimmer
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, U.S.
Area served
United States, Canada
Key people
Logan Green, CEO
John Zimmer, President
Brian Roberts, CFO
RevenueDecrease US$2.364 billion (2020)
Increase US$−1.808 billion (2020)
Increase US$−1.752 billion (2020)
Total assetsDecrease US$4.678 billion (2020)
Total equityDecrease US$1.676 billion (2020)
Number of employees
4,675 (2020)
SubsidiariesMotivate
Websitelyft.com
Footnotes / references
[1]
Lyft's pink car mustache
Lyft's distinctive pink mustache was the first branding the company used until 2015 when it switched to a smaller, glowing magenta mustache that sits on a driver's dashboard.

Lyft, Inc. develops, markets, and operates a mobile app, offering vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, and food delivery. The company is based in San Francisco, California and operates in 644 cities in the United States and 12 cities in Canada.[2]

With a 30% market share, Lyft is the second-largest ridesharing company in the United States after Uber.[3]

Product overview

Lyft provides basic vehicle insurance.[4]

Riders must download the Lyft mobile app to their smartphone, sign up, enter a valid phone number, and enter a valid form of payment (either a credit card, Lyft Gift card, or link to an Apple Pay, Google Wallet, or PayPal account).[5][6] Once the trip is completed, funds are debited from the funding source.[7]

Car rides

Depending on the location, Lyft offers various service levels including shared rides with other passengers traveling in the same general direction (suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic), private rides, or larger or luxury vehicles.[8]

Lyft scooter

Rental cars

In August 2020, Lyft began its partnership with rental car company Sixt in order to let users access rental cars through the "Rentals" tab in their app. Most of the rental cars are owned and operated by Sixt, a predominantly European company (German-owned) with 85 locations in the US.[9] For each car rental made through the app, Lyft will receive a commission. The program began as Lyft Rentals in 2019 with Lyft owning and operating its own rental fleet in Los Angeles and San Francisco.[10]

History

A Lyft vehicle in Santa Monica, California, with the original grill-stache branding, since retired

Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 by computer programmers Logan Green and John Zimmer as a service of Zimride, a long-distance intercity carpooling company they founded in 2007.[11][12]

Green had the inspiration for Zimride after sharing rides from the University of California, Santa Barbara campus to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He had used Craigslist’s ride boards but wanted to eliminate the anxiety of not knowing the passenger or driver. When Facebook opened its API to third-party developers, Green said he thought "Here’s the missing ingredient."[13] Zimride linked drivers and passengers through the Facebook Connect application.[14] By using Facebook profile information, student drivers and passengers could learn about each other.[15] Zimride eventually became the largest carpool company in the United States.[16][17] Green was introduced to John Zimmer through a mutual friend and the pair initially met on Facebook. The company name came from the country Zimbabwe, where, during a trip in 2005, Green observed locals sharing minivan taxis.[18][19][20] Zimride launched at Cornell University, where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the campus.[21][22]

In May 2013, the company officially changed its name from Zimride to Lyft.[23] The change from Zimride to Lyft was the result of a hackathon that sought a means of daily engagement with its users, instead of once or twice a year.[24]

In July 2013, Lyft sold Zimride to Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, to enable the company to focus exclusively on the growth of Lyft.[25]

Whereas Zimride was focused on college campuses, Lyft launched as a ridesharing company for shorter trips within cities.[15]

Lyft became known for the large pink furry mustaches drivers attached to the front of their cars. Riders were also encouraged to sit in the front seat and fist bump with drivers upon meeting.[26] In November 2014, the company distanced itself from the fist bump.[27][28]

In January 2015, Lyft introduced a small, glowing plastic dashboard mustache it called a "glowstache" as an alternative to the large fuzzy mustaches on the front of cars. The transition was to help overcome the resistance of some riders to arrive at destinations, such as business meetings, in a car with a giant mustache.[29]

In April 2014, Lyft hired two lobbying firms, TwinLogic Strategies, and Jochum Shore & Trossevin, to address the regulatory barriers and opposition it had received since its launch.[30]

Due to regulatory hurdles in New York City, the company altered its business model when establishing Lyft on the East Coast of the United States. Lyft's launch in New York City occurred on the evening of July 25, 2014, and, in accordance with the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) and the approval of the Manhattan Supreme Court, only drivers registered with the TLC were permitted to drive Lyft-branded vehicles in New York City.[31]

In August 2014, the company introduced a shared ride concept, which provides cheaper fares.[32]

In December 2015, Lyft became the first ridesharing company allowed to pick up passengers at Los Angeles International Airport.[33]

In December 2017, Lyft expanded into Canada, with operations in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Ontario and Ottawa.[34]

In March 2018, Lyft partnered with Allscripts to create a platform allowing healthcare providers to arrange rides for patients who lack transportation to appointments. The service would be available to 2,500 hospitals, 180,000 physicians, and approximately 7 million patients.[35][36]

In November 2018, Lyft acquired Motivate, a bicycle-sharing system and the operator of Capital Bikeshare and Citi Bike.[37][38] The company also announced plans to add 28,000 Citi Bikes and expand its service.[39]

In March 2019, Lyft became the first ride-sharing company to hold an initial public offering raising $2.34 billion at a valuation of $24.3 billion.[40] The company set aside some shares to be given to long-time drivers.[41]

In April 2020, Lyft laid off 982 employees and furloughed an additional 288 in an effort to reduce operating expenses and adjust cash flows due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[42] The company continued to offer scooters for rent in San Francisco, while Miami government asked Lyft to halt operations.[43]

In December 2020, Lyft announced that it will launch a multi-city U.S. robotaxi service in 2023 with Motional.[44]

Self-driving car research

In 2012, Green wanted to pitch investors on self-driving cars as part of Lyft's future offering. Green envisioned a few big networks of self-driving cars, similar to AT&T and Verizon.[45]

In January 2016, Lyft announced an autonomous car partnership with General Motors.[46] On May 5, 2016, Lyft and General Motors announced, as part of their partnership, that it planned to begin testing self-driving cars within the next year.[47]

On June 6, 2017, Lyft announced a new partnership with Boston-based autonomous self-driving car start-up NuTonomy to eventually put autonomous, on-demand vehicles on the road.[48]

In September 2017, Lyft partnered with Ford Motor Company to develop and test autonomous vehicles.[49][50]

In March 2018, Lyft partnered with GoMentum Station to test its self-driving technology.[51]

On March 14, 2018, Lyft partnered with Magna International to co-fund, develop, and manufacture autonomous vehicle systems to produce self driving technology that will be available to all car manufacturers.[52]

In October 2018, Lyft acquired Blue Vision Labs, a London-based augmented reality startup, for $72 million. This expertise is expected to help autonomous cars to extract useful information from street-level images.[53][54]

In 2021, Lyft's self-driving division was sold to Toyota.[55]

References

  1. ^ "Lyft, Inc. 2020 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  2. ^ "Lyft: Cities". Lyft. Archived from the original on November 19, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Gessner, Kathryn. "Rideshare Industry Overview". Second Measure. Archived from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  4. ^ "Insurance Policy". Lyft. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  5. ^ "How to add or update payment info". Lyft. Archived from the original on March 9, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  6. ^ Lane, Patrick (October 27, 2012). "A Sense of Place". The Economist. Archived from the original on August 21, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  7. ^ "How to pay for a Lyft ride". Lyft. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  8. ^ Rapier, Graham (March 17, 2020). "Uber and Lyft suspend shared rides to combat the spread of coronavirus". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  9. ^ Michael Goldstein. "Lyft Gets Into The Rental Car Business With Partner SIXT". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
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  55. ^ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/27/business/corporate-business/toyota-lyft-automated-driving/
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