Careem records 4.3 million rides in first 10 months of 2021

Nearly 52% of customers in the UAE said they used the service to commute to work, while 46% said they used it for leisure trips

Launched in 2012 as a web booking service for corporate cars, Careem has evolved into a Super App with 11 services. Reuters

Ride-hailing company Careem, which registered more than 23 million rides in the UAE between 2015 and 2019, recorded 4.1 million rides last year and 4.3 million rides during the January-October period of this year.

Careem, the first Super App of the Middle East, revealed the numbers in a report titled “The socio-economic impact of Careem” that it produced in partnership with Oxford Economics.

Nearly 55 per cent of its UAE customers are male and 45 per cent are female, mainly aged between 18 and 29, the report said.

More than half of the Careem customers said they used the service to commute to work, while nearly 46 per cent said they used it primarily for leisure trips.

Almost 37 per cent of Careem’s female customers and 21 per cent of its male users said they used the service because it felt safe, the company said.

Launched in 2012 as a web booking service for corporate cars, Careem has evolved into a Super App offering 11 services.

The Super App, which has about 48 million registered users, combines different offers — such as ride hailing, food and grocery delivery, digital payments, bike sharing and intercity travel — on a single platform.

Careem’s latest report revealed that 55 per cent of its captains (drivers) surveyed admitted their quality of life had improved as a result of joining the company. This was due to the flexibility to set their hours, with four in 10 captains reporting that they used that flexibility to spend more time with their family.

In September, Careem told its office staff that they could work from home indefinitely as it looks to reduce rent and office expenses. Most of its staff across its 36 offices in 14 countries reported that their productivity had increased as they worked from home.

Earlier this year, it announced its “Officeday” pilot programme, asking colleagues in the UAE to return to the office for one day each week.

Careem was acquired by US ride-hailing company Uber in a $3.1 billion deal that was concluded in January last year. It operates in over 100 cities and has created two million income-generating opportunities in the region, the company said.