Yango, Bolt, and InDrive: The market opportunity & battle for dominance in Zimbabwe

Yango, formerly known as Yandex Taxi B.V, appears to be the newest entrant into the Zimbabwean ride-share market according to advertisements that have flooded in on Facebook and Instagram. 

Surprisingly Yango is registered in the Netherlands but is owned by Russian IT firm Yandex which many will be aware of as the Russian alternative for Google and Bing. The company’s operations have spread across diverse geographies across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America. The greatest footprint Yango has is in Israel with the ride-hailing company saying on its website that it operates in eleven cities, more than any other in its current line-up of the country. 

The significance of this move is that Bolt recently entered the Zimbabwean market following the introduction of Rida and InDrive not too long ago. The ride-hailing market in Zimbabwe has become crowded as it stands now it’s competing with Vaya Africa, GTaxi, Hwindi, the aforementioned InDrive and Rida, on top of the conventional taxi operators and informal transporters. 

Zimbabwe’s "Transport Crisis"

There is a significant public transport deficit in Zimbabwe. To caption this problem we need to take a look at the historical outlay of public transport in the southern African nation.