Present in Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala, the transportation services platform joins the competitive taxi app industry that has time as one of its main challenges in cities with the worst levels of vehicular traffic in the world.
Entering a small market has been the strategy of Yango, a mobility platform that is part of the Russian technology conglomerate Yandex, to penetrate Latin America.
Although the group already has a presence with Yango Delivery - its delivery company for companies - in Chile, Mexico and Peru, Bolivia was the market chosen to enter with the taxi app. The launch was at the end of 2022 and today they cover the most important cities in the Altiplano country: La Paz and Santa Cruz.
“We chose a small entry market like Bolivia. Yango is an international brand, but we have to build it in Latin America. This implies a very important development of technology. Likewise, we are going to be in the largest markets. A month ago we started a trial period in Lima, one of the largest cities in Latin America. After Brazil and Mexico, Peru is one of the countries with the largest inhabitants and we do not consider it a small market. Then we will go to the largest ones like Colombia, Argentina or Mexico, but the strategy is to build a brand, understand the local consumer. We identify where there are opportunities and in Lima we have discovered many opportunities to improve the service, both in price, security, technology, quality, and waiting times. We don't see so much the size of the market, but rather the opportunity that exists in each city,” says Juan Pablo Velasco, general manager of Yango in Peru and Bolivia .
In that sense, last week, Yango officially announced his entry to Peru. According to the Bolivian executive, the potential in the capital is enormous, since there are 230,000 vehicles that are used as taxis, and just under half operate under an application.
However, in Peru, as in other markets in the region, Yango will have to compete with more established mobility platforms, such as Cabify, Uber or Didi.
For Velasco, the value proposition is his business model. “We do not work with direct drivers, but with companies and that makes all the difference because by working with a company legally, the drivers have support to fall back on if something happens. That is a game changer for the industry . Plus, our prices are the best. In Lima, for example, you have rates from S/ 3.5 (less than US$ 1), it is very cheap. On the topic of security we have the conflict button and security algorithms for route diversion. Basically what Yango has is the best of each service,” he remarks.
THE WAITING TIME, THE BIGGEST HEADACHE
Although the taxi industry currently has a large technological component, waiting times can be a nightmare for users, especially Latin America, which is home to several cities with the worst vehicle traffic in the world.
In that regard, Yango has quite ambitious goals. “The ETA, which is the waiting time from when you request the car, is a very important KPI. Our goal in the medium is to have a waiting time of one minute, which is already happening in other cities where Yango is located, this happens over time. It is a very important metric because at the end of the day, when you order a taxi you want it immediately,” says Velasco.
To achieve this, Yango develops its own maps, routes and navigation, as well as intelligent order distribution. “We use technology and develop our maps strategically, this is a very important commitment. At first it is a large investment, there is a lot of work for a city as large as Lima, but we have the knowledge and experience that in the medium term the value of having our own maps is very different and the service changes considerably in terms of efficiency. get to the point faster, price, that the driver is not so long without a trip and that the user has their car quickly. We are the only company that does this,” says Juan Pablo Velasco.
For now, the Yango taxi application has added one more market: Guatemala. And although the application of Russian origin is strong in more than 20 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, today it targets Latin America.
“Latin America is a market of 650 million inhabitants and with a digital penetration of more than 45%. It is a very attractive market for this type of technology. The taxi service in these developing countries can improve a lot,” he concludes.
