Ride Hailing Pricing Playbook

Careem is the biggest ride hailing startup in Middle East that was acquired by Uber in 2019 for $ 3.1 Billion prior to Uber’s IPO. I led pricing strategy for the network’s multiple geographies. Prior to the acquisition, when the pricing competition between Careem and Uber was intense, there were frequent pricing changes in multiple cities.

My team and I designed intelligent pricing tool called ‘Optimus’ to track current market share, profitability and growth trends. The tool collects real time data on competitor's price changes, alerts triggers and recommends pricing based on market's current growth targets, market share and allocated budget. It also took into account external factors like fuel price increase that affect ride economy.

The impact was real time, decisive and calculated pricing strategy and tactical changes.