Carpooling Startup BlaBlaCar Looks to Take Over Long-Distance Bus Service Ouibus
Photo Credit: Some people model what good car-pooling behavior should look like. BlaBlaCar is the world’s largest long-distance carpooling platform. It has offered to acquire Ouibus, a bus subsidiary of SNCF, which in turn SNCF said it has led a $113 million (€101 million) investment in the startup. BlaBlaCar
Skift Take
Rail operator SNCF also announced that it is has led a $113 million investment in BlaBlaCar as a new investor. Perhaps carpooling could prove to be a path to building a major travel brand.
By 2019, French consumers may be able to go to the website of the nation's main railway company and buy travel via a combined ticket of train plus bus, or train plus carpooling, or even train plus bus plus carpooling.
That's the dream of BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest long-distance ridesharing community, which announced on Monday a surprise offer to acquire Ouibus, French intercity bus operator.
Negotiators are still working on the deal and a sale isn't finali
