An Athens-founded ride-hail app plans to overtake Latin America one city at a time, using surprise launches to shock the competition. Beat has posted steady growth in revenue and ridership in Peru, Chile and Colombia. Now it will add Medellín to a Colombian presence that started in capital Bogotá, and it will add a new service tier to its existing Lima market.
There, “Beat Lite” will capture a lower income segment of the population, recruiting drivers of cars manufactured between 2000 and 2008, and offering discounted rides in those cars to broaden its customer base to include budget commuters.
The Lite concept only launched March 18, so it’s too early to read results. But the move is likely to increase Beat’s share of the city’s driver-contractor pool. Those drivers will pay Beat lower commissions on the lower fares they earn and thus still reserve some profit margin. Continuing its recruitment push, the company vets and registers new drivers on its website, on a phone hotline and at two brick-and-mortar driver centers.