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

Every few weekends, 21-year-old student Lavanya Jain opens the BlaBlaCar app to find a lift from Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi to his home in Kandhla, a small town in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state. The 120-kilometer journey costs him about ₹500, the equivalent of 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 like to chat — you should basically check out BlaBlaCar,” Jain told TechCrunch, adding that he has used the app some 40 to 50 times over the past two years.

Jain is one of millions of Indians turning to long-distance carpooling as a cheaper, more social way to travel between cities. That surge has made India the company’s largest market worldwide, with an estimated 20 million passengers this year — up almost 50% from a year earlier. Based on that forecast, BlaBlaCar’s India market would surpass the 18 million passengers projected in Brazil and its home market of France.

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

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

India is home to more than 700 million smartphone users and has seen a sharp rise in digital payments, which now account for over 99% of all transactions in the country.

At the center of that shift is the Indian government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, which processed about 19.6 billion transfers worth around ₹24.9 trillion (roughly $284 billion) in September alone. Car sales have climbed in tandem, reaching 4.73 million vehicles 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 relative to its over 1.4 billion population, and the steady expansion of road infrastructure that is improving connectivity between smaller towns, rural areas, and major cities.

“We have lots of examples from users who say, ‘Before, I was flying 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 ride,’” said Nicolas Brusson, co-founder and chief executive of BlaBlaCar, in an interview.

BlaBlaCar first entered India in early 2015, setting up a local office in New Delhi. The company soon faced stiff competition from Uber and local rival Ola, both of which were experimenting with carpooling services and marketing them heavily. (The companies would ended up suspending those carpooling services during the COVID-19 lockdowns.)

Struggling to gain traction, BlaBlaCar withdrew its local team in 2017. Still, the app remained live — and in 2022, usage began to surge again. Since then, it has skyrocketed from 4.3 million users in 2022 to a projected 20 million this year.

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

Trip-wise, BlaBlaCar recorded its strongest growth in India, with 13.5 million trips completed as of September 30, up from 9.1 million during the same period last year. Brazil remained slightly ahead, with 14 million trips this year compared with 11.7 million in 2023, while France ranked third with 5.6 million trips, broadly flat from a year earlier.

“For us, the center of gravity has shifted away from our initial markets in Western Europe toward places like Japan, Turkey — and increasingly, India,” Brusson told TechCrunch.

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

By comparison, average driver earnings are about €15 (around $17) in France and roughly €6.5 (roughly $7) in Brazil, even though trip distances are broadly similar in India and Brazil and shorter than France’s average of about 250 kilometers (roughly 155 miles). The difference, BlaBlaCar said, reflects lower local purchasing power and cost-sharing expectations in India.

Nearly 70% of BlaBlaCar’s Indian users are between the ages of 18 and 34, and about 95% of activity takes place through its mobile app. Roughly half of all rides in India occur along the country’s 15 busiest intercity routes, while the other half comes from outside the top 150 corridors — evidence of growing adoption beyond major metros and into smaller cities. Among the busiest routes are Pune–Thane and Pune–Nashik in Maharashtra, Bengaluru–Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, and several others linking mid-sized urban centers.

“No hurry” to start monetization

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

“We are in no hurry to start introducing a fee or generating revenue in India. We are focused on generating usage, and we have the playback because we’ve done that in several markets,” Brusson told TechCrunch.

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

BlaBlaCar does not view ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Ola as its competitors in India. Brusson described them as “demand-led” products, while BlaBlaCar, he said, is “supply-led.” Instead, the company sees people driving their own cars — or opting for readily available trains and buses — as its main substitutes.

Challenges on its way to success

BlaBlaCar still faces some challenges in India.

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

BlaBlaCar introduced an ID Check feature in India to verify users’ identities through government-issued documents — a tool it later rolled out globally. However, TechCrunch found that users can still book or publish a ride 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 broader trust and safety framework; we don’t rely on a single feature, but on multiple, layered mechanisms that work together to build confidence 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 also displays user reviews and ratings and verifies accounts through phone numbers and email addresses.

“We actively encourage members to complete all verification steps, as fully verified profiles — with 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 also report frustration when drivers or passengers cancel trips 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 for those trying to book rides on behalf of family members or friends.

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

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