Lyft May Decide To Enter Japan’s Ride-Hailing Market

Lyft is Uber’s main competitor in the United States but the latter is in a league of its own globally. Lyft doesn’t have the kind of international footprint that Uber does and it’s going to take it a very long time to get to where Uber is today. Lyft hasn’t ever ruled out international expansion and it appears that the company might be looking to expand its international footprint by entering one of the most challenging ride-hailing markets in the world: Japan.

Comments from one of the company’s founders suggest that Lyft is considering a move to Japan. “We would love to be in Japan, and we also will be looking at that possibility,” said John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft, at the New Economy Summit 2018 in Tokyo. “I think the regulatory framework here will play an even larger role than it likely had in other regions,” he added.

It’s not like Lyft doesn’t have an international footprint at all. It moved into Canada in December last year which marked the start of its expansion outside U.S. borders. It’s not surprising to see that Lyft has kept Japan open as one of its next options for expansion given that one of the country’s biggest e-commerce companies Rakuten has been an investor in Lyft since 2015.

Nevertheless, Japan is a complicated market for ride-hailing services as it remains dominated by licensed taxi operators. Whether or not Lyft will be able to come up with a strategy to quickly establish itself in Japan remains to be seen.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Japan, Lyft