Uber has slashed its fares in Mombasa. This price reduction comes after Little made an entrance to the Kenyan city.
Uber’s base fare will now cost KSh50 from the old KSh80, and they have also slashed their minimum fares from KSh250 to KSh150. Little, on the other hand charges a minimum fare of KSh270, and has no base charge.
Owned by Safaricom, the biggest company in East and Central Africa, Little has shown themselves to be somewhat formidable competitors to Uber.
Little first came into the market in July 2016, launching their ride hailing service in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal was to compete with the already established Uber at the time. Passengers could pay for their rides using M-PESA, Safaricom’s payments service. They hit a little snafu when they had to change their name as someone forgot to register the trademark.
Uber responded to their Nairobi entrance by knocking down prices by 35%. Then the newly renamed Little added a USSD feature that allowed users who didn’t have smartphones to hail a cab.
This would be Uber’s newest move in the race for domination of the Kenyan market. It is common knowledge that Uber knocks its competition out of the market really quickly, but so far, Little seems to be giving them a run for their money.
