Every now and then we come across several developers buiding awesome apps for use by the local community and we get fascinated even when we clearly know some of those apps will never see the light of day.However, anyone building a taxi hailing app needs to be listened to, not because they won’t beat Uber, EasyTaxi Kenya, MaraMoja or SasaCabs or PataCabs, Pewin Cabs or Teksi254 and SayTaxi plus several others but because we think culture plays a huge role in user acquisition in this market.
M-BEBA is a new application being developed as a car sharing serviceand as well a taxi hailing app. M-BEBA aims to allow riders to request a safe, affordable ride with the touch of a button. It also aims to allow drivers to make extra cash by giving registered M-BEBA users a ride on request.
M-BEBA users turn to the app to hail cabs or carpool vehicles from their friends or registered users. After searching on the platform and selecting a nearby ride, the user can wait for the driver to arrive as they track them. M-BEBA promises seamless payments via M-Pesa, Credit Cards or PayPal account. We are not yet sure about cash now, but will confirm.
Still under development for both Android and iOS, M-BEBA is a venture by Levi Benjamin Mointeor, of Twogether International, a Non-profit Organization registered in Texas, USA. Mointeor, a Kenyan attended Navarro College and University of Texas in Arlington and says has run a number of companies. Gaining ground in Kenya’s taxi hailing industry might not be so easy though.
TechMoran has talked to over ten taxi hailing companies. Two of which have shut or are inactive, while others are at launch phase and others in stealth. It will be interesting to see how Uber, EasyTaxi, SasaCabs, Maramoja Transport among others take it on. The market is huge, the city transport system needs to be fixed but we think it won’t be by M-BEBA.