India, the market BlaBlaCar once walked away from, is now its biggest

Every few weekends, 21-year-old student Lavanya Jain opens Blablocker app to find a lift from Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi to her home in Kandla, a small town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A 120-kilometer ride costs him about ₹500, equivalent to about $6. That’s a fraction of the ₹1,500-₹2,000, or $17-$23, he would pay for a private cab.

“If you’re looking for a fast, efficient, affordable and comfortable way to travel — and you love to chat — then you should definitely check out BlaBlaCar,” Jain told TechCrunch, adding that he’s used the app about 40 to 50 times in the past two years.

Jain is one of millions of Indians who are turning to long-distance carpooling as a cheaper, more social way to travel between cities. The surge has made India the company’s largest market globally, with an estimated 20 million passengers this year – nearly 50% more than a year ago. Based on that forecast, BlaBlaCar’s India market will surpass the estimated 18 million passengers in its home markets of Brazil and France.

For a company that closed its India office in 2017 after poor traction, the change is striking.

Growth has largely come without marketing or a local team, driven rather by word of mouth, the spread of mobile internet access, and the rise of digital payments and car ownership among India’s middle class.

Home of India More than 700 million smartphone users And there has been a sharp rise in digital payments, which Now over 99% of all transactions in the country

At the center of that change is the Indian government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, which About 19.6 billion transfers have been processed The value in September alone is about ₹24.9 trillion (about $284 billion). Car sales increased simultaneously, 4.73 million vehicles reached in 2024, up from 3.87 million a year earlier – a 5.2% year-on-year increase and an all-time high.

Other factors behind BlaBlaCar’s rapid growth in India include the country’s limited public transport capacity compared to a population of 1.4 billion, and the continuous expansion of road infrastructure that is improving connectivity between small towns, rural areas and big cities.

“We have a lot of examples of people who say, ‘Before I was going to a destination or taking the train or not going at all — and now I can actually drive. It takes three hours and it’s a pleasant journey,'” said Nicolas Bruson, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlocker, in an interview.

Blablocker first entry Established a local office in India, New Delhi in early 2015. The company soon faced stiff competition from Uber and local rival Ola, both of which had Testing carpooling services And marketing them extensively. (Companies will suspend those carpooling services during the Covid-19 lockdown.)

Struggling to gain traction, BlaBlaCar withdrew its local team in 2017. Still, the app stayed live — and in 2022, usage started to grow again. Since then, it has grown from 4.3 million users in 2022 to 20 million this year.

BlaBlaCar has averaged around 1.1 million monthly active users in India this year, reaching around 1.5 million in August. About three-quarters are passengers, the remaining 25% are drivers. India now accounts for about 33% of BlaBlaCar’s global carpool passengers, the company said.

By trip, BlaBlaCar recorded its strongest growth in India, completing 13.5 million trips as of September 30, up from 9.1 million in the same period last year. Brazil is slightly ahead with 14 million trips this year compared to 11.7 million in 2023, while France is third with 5.6 million trips, broadly flat from a year ago.

“For us, the center of gravity has shifted from our primary markets in Western Europe to Japan, Turkey — and increasingly, India,” Brasson told TechCrunch.

Although BlaBlaCar does not yet generate revenue from India, drivers on its platform earned about ₹713 million (about $8 million) in August alone, the company said. Drivers in India earn ₹390 (about $4) per seat, with an average trip distance of 180 kilometers (about 112 miles).

By comparison, the average driver earns about €15 (about $17) in France and about €6.5 (about $7) in Brazil, although travel distances in India and Brazil are broadly the same and France’s average is less than about 250 kilometers (about 155 miles). The difference reflects lower local purchasing power and cost-sharing expectations in India, BlaBlaCar said.

About 70% of BlaBlaCar’s Indian users are between the ages of 18 and 34, and about 95% of activity is through its mobile app. About half of all rides in India are on the country’s 15 busiest intercity routes, while the other half come from outside the top 150 corridors — evidence of growing adoption outside major metros and in smaller cities. Busiest routes include Pune-Thane and Pune-Nashik in Maharashtra, Bangalore-Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and several other mid-sized urban centres.

“There’s no rush” to start monetizing

Despite all this growth, BlaBlaCar is not looking to enable monetization in India anytime soon.

“We’re in no rush to introduce a fee or generate revenue in India. We’re focused on generating usage, and we have playback because we’ve done it in several markets,” Brasson told TechCrunch.

Still, BlaBlaCar plans to set up its local office in India and make the first hires by the end of this year or early next year, Brusson said.

BlaBlaCar does not see ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Ola as its competitors in India. Brasson describes them as “demand-led” products, while BlaBlocker, he said, is “supply-led”. Instead, the company sees people driving their own cars – or opting for readily available trains and buses – as the main option.

Challenges on the road to success

BlaBlaCar still faces some challenges in India.

State regulations surrounding carpooling are unclear, which has brought the service under scrutiny in some cities. Some users, including Jain, have complained that BlaBlaCar’s customer support can be difficult to reach, which often replies with automated messages. The company told TechCrunch that it operates a “mixed model”, with an outsourced local team handling most day-to-day queries and a smaller group at the Paris headquarters handling critical issues and quality testing.

BlaBlaCar launched an ID Check feature in India to verify users’ identities through government-issued documents — a tool that later rolled out globally. However, TechCrunch found that users can book or publish rides even if their ID check is incomplete.

“This is a deliberate design choice to make it easier for new members to engage with the platform,” the company said in response. “ID verification is just one part of our larger trust and security framework; we don’t rely on one feature, but on multiple layered processes that work together to build trust within our community.”

The company added that more than 70% of trips in India are made with drivers who have completed government ID verification. BlaBlaCar displays user reviews and ratings and verifies accounts by phone number and email address.

“We actively encourage members to complete all verification steps, as fully verified profiles – including photo and ID – significantly increase the chances of finding carpoolers. Profiles lacking these elements tend to receive fewer bookings,” the company said.

Some BlaBlaCar users in India report frustration when trips are canceled at the last minute, sometimes even after reaching the meeting point. Additionally, the app lacks a live location-sharing feature, which Jain noted limits BlaBlaCar’s use to those trying to book a ride on behalf of family members or friends.

BlaBlaCar has adapted its product better for Indian users, introducing features like “meeting-point logic” to ease coordination. Unlike countries like France, where designated carpooling zones exist, India lacks designated pickup areas. Drivers and passengers usually agree to meet at a convenient location along the route – a petrol station, for example, or near a highway exit. The app now suggests and displays these locations using a mix of machine-learning algorithms and user input, helping to reduce detours and align with India’s on-the-ground infrastructure, the company said.

Globally, BlaBlaCar expects to reach around 150 million passengers this year, including users of its bus services, which operate in markets like France but are not yet available in India. As BlaBlaCar expands its global footprint, India’s unexpected rise puts it at the heart of the company’s next phase of growth.