A regional taxi aggregator « X Car » is entering Moscow

The taxi service « X Kar », working in a number of Russian regions, including the Arkhangelsk, Kirov regions and the Krasnodar Territory, enters Moscow. The company intends to invest more than 1 billion rubles in this. Now in the Russian capital, as in many millionaire cities, Yandex GO dominates, whose share, for example, reaches 96%in the Moscow market only. However, attempts to squeeze this service, undertaken at different times, Chinese DIDI and founded in Yakutsk Indriver, were not successful.

The Ix Kar taxi aggregator enters the market of Moscow and the Moscow Region, told Kommersant in the company itself. The service plans to invest more than 1 billion rubles in the development of this area. By the end of 2025, the service hopes to take up to 20% of the market, says the founder of the company Maxim Namedennik. According to him, at the first stage, he will connect 50 thousand drivers, and by the end of this year will increase their number to 200 thousand and attract 1 million passengers.

“Entering the metropolitan market is due to a strong request for an alternative to the player dominant here, including from the drivers who have to be given (the aggregator. – « Kommersant ») a commission at some tariffs up to 35%, ”says Maxim the birthday. In Moscow, at the end of 2024, Yandex GO had a dominant position, whose share among the mobile applications of taxi in the Russian capital, according to the city transport department, exceeded 96%. Yandex Taxi refused to comment.

Other players had attempts to compete with Yandex service in Moscow. In 2017, the Indriver founded in Yakutsk announced the entering the capital of the capital, where he intended to occupy a share of 5% (see Kommersant on December 6, 2017). But the service failed to achieve this goal. Later, in Moscow, the DIDI, the Chinese conglomerate, developing a taxi service in many countries. But by the beginning of the winter of 2022, the company decided to leave the Russian market, explaining this by the fact that « it cannot provide the best results of work due to changing market conditions and other challenges. »

A rather specific taxi market has been formed in Moscow, where the experience of regional services may be irrelevant, so a new player will be difficult to stay in this market, according to the Maxim taxi service. The experience of other companies that attempted to take a noticeable share in Moscow shows that as soon as they reduced or reduced cash injection, including marketing, they began the outflow of drivers and passengers, added to Maxim. Therefore, the balance of power in the segment of the aggregators is unlikely to change dramatically in the near future, said Natalia Lozinskaya, Executive Director of the National Taxi Council.

X Car can attract drivers in Moscow at the expense of a low commission, which is declared at the level of 5-6%, while Yandex is 22–24%in the economy tariff, and in Comfort – up to 27%, the chairman of the taxi forum, Oleg Amosov, notes. Maxim Bennian says that in Moscow the Ix Kar commission for drivers will be up to 15%. The new player in Moscow will be able to attract passengers due to a significant discount to the current, sufficiently established prices in the metropolitan market, experts are unanimous. However, if the service begins to reduce prices, then without surcharges drivers simply will not go on the line, says Oleg Amosov.

The Moscow Taxi market demonstrates sustainable demand. In January -March 2025, the number of taxi trips in the city grew by 5% of the year, while throughout Russia the indicator decreased by 2%, follows from the calculations of the “OFD platform”. Transport prices are also growing more rapidly. The average check for taxi services in Moscow for this period increased by 8%, to 825 rubles, according to the Russian Federation as a whole – by 7%, up to 616 rubles.

Daria Andrianova