What a Siberian Startup and a Saudi Ticketing App Reveal About Travel’s Future
Photo Credit: Webook has added flights and hotels to its platform. Webook
Skift Take
Two startups from two different worlds are quietly rewriting the rules of who controls the travel transaction, with fascinating implications.
Connecting the Dots
Rafat Ali on what’s really shaping travel — and why it matters.On my recent visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I “discovered” a new local app that bills itself as the “super app for fun.” It’s called Webook, and I’ve been obsessed with it — so much so that I asked every local I met for their thoughts. It recently added flights and hotels, and that matters in ways I’ll come back to later.
I went down the rabbit hole of connecting the dots and started to see a pattern emerging in the next generation of apps. It deserves more attention than it’s getting.
Another development pushed this idea even further: a ride-hailing company called inDrive. Born in Siberia and expanding into Saudi Arabia, it has become the second most-downloaded ride-hailing app in the world by letting passengers and drivers negotiate fares directly, the opposite of how Uber built its empire.
Together, these apps represent a fundamental rethinking of where value accrues in travel and mobility, and who gets to capture it.
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