In recent years, the panorama of urban mobility has changed substantially thanks to the irruption of technology and, above all, to the new digital services that make urban travel more accessible and tangible. The arrival of the VTC, shared vehicles or modernizations in public transport, all of them powered by apps, are changing the panorama of the sector in urban centers. Smartme Analytics, the observational data company, has created a study for its Urban Mobility Observatory on the main urban mobility services in Spain in 2021 to identify the most relevant trends and understand the evolution of this sector.
The executive summary that the company has made public allows the following conclusions to be drawn: Cabify in the Taxi and VTC sector, Ecooltra in Moto Sharing, Zity in Car Sharing and Moovit in public transport are the mobility services with the highest market share in each one of these subsectors in the field of mobility. The emergence of Bolt or the unstoppable growth of Zity are some of the most significant changes that the sector has experienced in 2021.
Bolt’s arrival in Spain shakes the sector
The apps that made it possible to hire private transport services were a revolution when they arrived in Spain. Now, fully established in society, they are present on the smartphones of most of the inhabitants of large cities. Among them, the most used are Cabify and Uber, which remain leaders in the sector with a market share of 55% and 54.6%, respectively. In the general ranking they are followed far behind by Free Now (15.3%), Bolt (12.3%) and Pide Taxi (5.5%). The analysis reveals that digital services for requesting traditional taxis are generally used for planned transport, with longer average time sessions and mainly from home or through Wi-Fi connections, while VTCs have an important “on the go” component.
Bolt’s emergence points to changes in the sector in the short term due to its rapid growth. This new actor arrived on the Spanish market in July 2021 and by December it was already the third brand by market share. Despite the fact that users of this type of service usually use more than one company to find the best alternative for their trip, in just half a year Bolt has positioned itself not only as a complement, but as a real alternative. Its percentage of exclusive users increases exponentially month after month at the expense of the percentage of users of the leaders in the sector, growing its market share in exclusive users by 195% compared to Cabify and 158% compared to Uber.
Acciona and Zity change the trend of the sector
Smartme Analytics assures that another of the great irruptions in the mobility sector has been shared vehicles, which, being mostly electric, offer an alternative to move around urban centers without access limitations to low-emission zones, or cost for parking and are usually cheaper than a taxi.
In the motorcycle sharing sector, Ecooltra was the best positioned company in all of 2021 with a market share of more than 30%. However, Acciona has cut its margin this past year with the first competitor, reaching a 29.8% share and even managed to position itself above Ecooltra, reaching 36.4% in the last quarter. For car sharing, the case of Zity stands out, ending the year as the leader in the sector with a 12.2% market share and despite having started in January in third position below Wible and ShareNow, which ended the year with a total positioning of 10.7% and 10% market share respectively.
Moovit, the favorite service for public transport
Faced with an impatient society, public mobility had to adapt to the arrival of digitization in the sector and mobile applications positioned themselves as the best option for users to plan their trips. Among them, Moovit is the most used service with a 21% market share, followed by Transporte Madrid (10%) and Tu Transporte Madrid (10%). The study shows that these digital services add up to very short sessions of use, less than 40 seconds, but a high number of accesses. For its part, Moovit, by offering the option to compare the best route, presents a longer average time per session.
The report that has been made public also includes the analysis of parking services. Specifically, applications aimed at facilitating the task of telematic payment of parking costs in cities that have a regulated model. The leading companies in this vertical are, in this order, Telpark, ElParking, EasyPark, e-park and Parclick.
«Urban mobility is one of the social phenomena with the greatest impact on the daily life of the inhabitants of large cities. Supported by leading companies in the sector, we have created the first Urban Mobility Observatory. A service of data, knowledge and analysis of trends and the future evolution of sustainable coexistence in the main Spanish cities. After the big break caused by the confinement in terms of mobility, 2021 has been a year of recovery for the sector. That is why we have shared a first report with public data that contributes to collective knowledge”, says Lola Chicón, CEO and founder of Smartme Analytics.
The Smartme Analytics Urban Mobility Observatory 2021 is a consultative service that offers access to observed and rigorous data from more than 34 urban mobility services, obtained directly from the real-time monitoring of citizens who use digital services to request trips in urban areas. cities.
It was born with the aim of offering administrations, associations and companies in the sector activatable intelligence, providing transversal knowledge on the demand for both public and private services, and on the use of all types of vehicles for urban travel, whether cars, motorcycles , scooters, bicycles, buses, subway, etc. In addition to data collected in real time, the service provides access to regular reports to give you an edge in a highly competitive landscape.
