Ever since Uber left Singapore, many hail-riding companies wanted to fill the vacuum left behind by the tech giant.

Go-Jek, Ryde, Jugnoo, all of them told the media that they’re going to set up operations in Singapore.

So that Singaporeans will have “affordable travel options”.

And fast forward 3 months later, we have one casualty in the war of the rides.

Jugnoo Throws In The Towel After 3 Months

Instead of the usual ride-booking system, Jugnoo entered Singapore with what they called the price bidding system.

You would have to choose between three prices: one is the usual suggested price, the other is 10% higher and the last would be 10% less. Either that or you can enter their own price.

(Try bidding $10 from Tampines to Jurong)

You see, when that happens, the driver would have a choice of whether to pick you up or not: set it too low and all drivers might just ignore your booking. Set it too high and you might have to eat Maggi Mee that night, but at least you’ll get a ride fast.

However, fast forward three months later and Jugnoo announced that they’ll be closing the Singapore app by the end of this month.

The reason for the sudden closure? Jugnoo had a hard time trying to get more drivers to sign up with them.

So, is Jugnoo gone for good?

If you love Jugnoo, then you’ll be happy to know that their presence will still be felt. But on another app.

Jugnoo has teamed up with Kardi, a ride-hailing company in Singapore started by a local entrepreneur, Ashwin Selambram.

According to Jugnoo chief executive Samar Singla, Kardi is the expert in operations while Jugnoo is the expert in technology.

What they want is to give Kardi the tools to compete against the bigger players like Grab without “worrying about technology”.

Jugnoo will supply a team of 5 engineers to work on Kardi’s app and in return, the company will take a cut of Kardi’s revenue.

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So, what’s going to happen now?

And by that, I meant what’s going to happen to the drivers in Jugnoo?

Well, Kardi is now courting the Jugnoo drivers and asking if they can port their details over to the Kardi app.

At the moment, Kardi has about 2,000 drivers driving for them.

But Mr Singla is confident that Kardi stands a fighting chance.

“At the end of the day, Grab is charging 20 per cent in commissions from drivers because it has to give returns to its investors. That’s a big pressure point.”

Meanwhile, Kardi only charges 12% commission.

But whether that prediction holds true or not is another matter.

After all, Kardi didn’t manage to achieve their goal of having 3,000 drivers before they launched the app.

Just late last month, a new player has entered the industry: Tada. The firm charges 0% commission to its driver, therefore changing the rules of the battlefield altogether.

And one more player is coming into the industry as well: Go-Jek.

So, yeah. It’s going to be exciting.

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