How ICEF Alum Converted His Business Idea into Brilliant Success, or How “Yandex Go” Expanded to Include Kicksharing
Как создать успешный сервис проката самокатов? Ожидает ли этот рынок расширение и приток новых игроков? Где скрыта основная прибыль? Как строился сервис «Самокаты» в «Яндекс Go»? Обо всем этом рассказал на встрече в ICEF Tech Club руководитель сервиса, выпускник МИЭФ BSc13 Леонид Ясиновский.
Last year’s statistics has it that the inhabitants of Moscow daily made 250,000+ trips with the e-scooters rented via Yandex Go, i.e. its kicksharing service has been used by every fourth inhabitant. E-scooters have become a common part of urban transport. Alongside megacities, they are available in 20 smaller places of the country, and this year their geography is likely to expand. The daily distance covered by the Yandex Go e-scooters in their season exceeds 550,000 km.
How to go about starting a kicksharing business? Will e-scooter sharing market grow to include more players? Where do core profits lie? How did Yandex Go embrace kicksharing? To get the answers to these questions, ICEF Tech Club met with Leonid Yasinovsky, Head of Yandex Go Kicksharing, member of the ICEF BSc13.
Shortly before graduating ICEF, Leonid happened to attend a presentation of car sharing service. When asked by the presenters what he thought about it, Leonid fired off the points he would improve, which immediately earned him a job in a company to become one of Moscow’s firsts to launch kicksharing. “It was like jumping into the last car of the departing train. I knew immediately that kicksharing had a far-reaching perspective into global future,” said Leonid.
E-scooters offer a convenient alternative to vehicles on distances of 3 km or less. They don’t require getting parked in designated places, often for a fee, like personal cars, and can be boarded right away, unlike taxis. “E-scooters are the glue that binds the urban transport elements together, offering swift rides around the city. Owning one can be a burden because it’s difficult to carry and needs servicing and charging, but the sharing service makes it easy transport,” said Leonid Yasinovsky.
“Last year, about 45% of all e-scooter rides in Moscow were rented on Yandex Go, even though its park has the same number of e-scooters as competitors’. We don’t spend money on marketing, since the majority of users have installed our app and all they have to do is just connect. Instead, we channel all our money into operational efficiency and safety. Imagine our operating system freezing for couple of days — the whole city would be inundated with dead metal,” said Leonid Yasinovsky.
One question from the members of the audience, who appeared to be active scooter riders themselves, concerned responsible riding and provider’s liability. According to Leonid, he’s working closely with the government agencies on matters of e-scooter regulation. There are rules for safe e-scooter riding, where accident prevention is a major focus. Persistent violators get fined and blocked. Responsible riding requires adequate infrastructure, for which reason the service uses its own funds to build bike lanes.
Leonid seems firmly convinced when he says, “Kicksharing is in no way just a passing trend. It is the future of the urban transport.”