National
Ride-sharing service Uber eyeing smaller SA cities─── 08:47 Thu, 03 Sep 2015
Johannesburg - Internet ride-sharing service Uber is exploring expansion from Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban to smaller South African cities.
This is according to Uber head of sub-Saharan Africa Alon Lits. Uber launched in South Africa in 2013, but to date the service is not available in cities such as Bloemfontein or Port Elizabeth. Lits says the company aims to be in every city globally with a population of more than 200 000 people.
According to census data from 2011, the Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City metropolitan areas each respectively have populations of 1 152 115 and 755 200. Meanwhile, Mangaung in the Free State has a population of 747 431.
Growth for Uber has been strong in South Africa as the company notched up 2 million rides locally in the first half of this year. The company also operates in Kenya’s Nairobi and Nigeria’s Lagos.
