After some months you are going to wake up in 2025 and going for some celebration, office, and family meets is going to happen. Simply commuting is going to happen and to make commuting easy you need to delve into digital transportation. This in coordination with with high fuel costs and the growth of the environmental conservation culture made more and more consumers start seeking alternatives to solo driving. People who take a carpooling app like BlaBlaCar can easily get a driver going in their direction, and they get to their destination cheaper and in the process promote the use of cars rather than using other means of transport.
Ridesharing trends have remained popular throughout the world, especially with the global carpool market projected to hit $15.1 billion by 2027, there has been an ever-rising demand for easily accessible and efficient carpooling services. This guide will explain the elements, how to implement the process and the cost of building an application like BlaBlaCar to seize this growing opportunity.
What is BlaBlaCar App?
BlaBlaCar is an Online Market Business that offers carpooling service which entails anyone who is willing to allow strangers to use his or her car to earn constructive income by driving such strangers to their places of work or any other destination they are going to in the morning or evening.
While it can be traced way back to 2012 in France, it currently runs in over 22 countries, and caters to the needs of over 90 million users it is one of the largest carpooling giants in the international market. Targeted substantially at city-to-city transportation, BlaBlaCar allows people to travel from one city to another at relatively low costs. This has fewer negative impacts on the environment than car owners using their vehicles.
Firstly, it is evident that the entire app infrastructure will involve community trust. It has authenticated user details, and they can rate, and post BlaBlaCar reviews, thereby, ensuring secure passenger and driver experiences. It also has a safe and secure payment method integrated right into the app for easy and reliable means of making payments for travel costs. As its competitor ride-sharing appears to be taking the spotlight these days, BlaBlaCar is seen more and more as the realistic way to make traveling cheaper, less polluting, and even more sociable.
Working Model of BlaBlaCar app?
The BlaBlaCar app runs on the model of ride-sharing, that is, shared and cost-effective road trips for long distances. Here’s a breakdown of its working model:
User Registration and Profile Setup
Users sign up, and in their profiles, provide photos, preferences (music tastes, talkative or quiet rider, and pet friendliness, or driver), and a rating of the driver/rider.
Through verification of profile, an environment that consists of reliable users is developed since both drivers and passengers are asked for review on each trip.
Ride Posting by Drivers
Unsaturated drivers post their intended trip on the platform, where they indicate the time the trip will commence, the intended location, and the number of open seats in the car.
They fix the per-seat fee which is to be charged depending on the subscriptions defined by the app and in order to prevent profitability of travel (as based on the cost-sharing model the app is designed to facilitate rather than make a business out of shared transportation).
Searching and Booking by Passengers
Riders can look for a car by inputting their pick-up location, drop-off location, and date of travel.
The demand side has the ability to view the type of car available, and some details of the drivers, the time they are expected to get to the pickup points, the time they will be making certain stops and the fare to be charged.
Customers choose a vehicle comfortable for them and get direct access to the chosen seat through the application.
In-App Communication
After journey reservation using the application, drivers and clients can use application text messaging to discuss the details such as meeting points, time of pick-ups, and others.
Payment Process
Collection of payments is done through the app, thus secure methods used for the same are applied fully. Users make payments in advance via the application’s integrated payment option, and the money goes into the system, where it waits until the end of the trip.
BlaBlaCar user interface has a small commission for sustaining the transaction and coordinating it.
Ride Completion and Rating
The amount is paid after the trip and both, the driver and the passenger, can drop ratings and reviews.
This feedback system also assists in ensuring trust within the community while ensuring that users rate other users before a subsequent trip.
Cost-Sharing and Profit Model
The dominant source of BlaBlaCar’s revenues is the service fees that are charged on every transaction.
It does not offer service that entails charges that attract profit-making fares and thus follows the set regulations in its service delivery instead of being a commercial transport service that many perceive it to be due to the sharing of costs.
How to Build an App Like BlaBlaCar?
Mainly there are 4 major steps to build an app like BlaBlaCar and those are given below:
Market Research
Market research is very important when considering such an app as BlaBlaCar since it forms the foundation of the environment your app will prevail. It involves the identification of your audience by analyzing their demographics, traveling profiles, and challenges through commuting. This way, you get to know what their requirements are to make features of your app relevant to them. Furthermore, competitor analysis is used in identifying the features of other carpooling platforms, thereby encouraging lessons on outstanding features that make the platforms popular among the users and vices that depict market weaknesses that one can take advantage of.
Prototyping
Prototyping is one of the most important processes that takes your research and converts it into a design and a model app. Starting with wireframing, tabletop drafts provide the general structure and idea of how the app’s interface should look and function. While focusing on the user’s path through the app and avoiding focusing on the details. After this, the creation of the prototypes can be built to interact with the actual design of the application to present its basic functionality to the stakeholders and potential users.
Design Development
Design development refers to the phase that takes the prototype developed and expands it into a fully functional app. It involves converting the looks, font, colors, icons, and buttons of the app interface into a beautiful UI that the users of the app will find acceptable. In addition to UI, UX processes should be optimized with customer journey mapping focusing on navigation, where it is essential to design for users to be able to perform tasks within the app, such as booking, or making a payment.
Maintenance and Support
After the app’s release, the question of long-term care is critical to app success as well as maintenance needs and support. This involves update that provides incremental additions to a new or existing app by adding functionalities, improving the user interface, and solving new problems as seen in the market or as reported by the users. User support is also important; users can request help over the app, email, or, help desk, and all common queries must be solved in a timely fashion. Observing app performance via analytics results supports the tracking of users’ interaction and tentative problems, which in return helps consider further development and prioritization of features.
To create an app like BlaBlaCar you need to have mobile app development services in Dubai, they help you in the best way.
Cost to Build an App Like BlaBlaCar
The general car rental mobile app cost that may be needed to create an app similar to BlaBlaCar might be very high and this greatly depends on; the number of features to be incorporated, the technology to be used, and the place where the developers are located. It varies, according to the usual estimation, from $30000 to $50000 to, and over $150000.
Of course, there are such costs as market research, design, back- and front-end programming, testing, and the cost of subsequent maintenance. Also, incorporating features that are not considered core such as real-time GPS tracking, secure payment gateways, and in-app communication can also raise costs.
Therefore, there is a need for the establishment of a budget analysis system that would enable the business to allocate adequate funds towards the achievement of its features that would suffice the market’s competitive carpooling segment.
To know the cost according to services you have to look at the table given below:
| Services | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|
| Development | $10,400 | $13,500 |
| Native Development | $3,000 | $4,600 |
| UI/UX Design | $4,000 | $5,400 |
| Backend development | $4,200 | $5,200 |
| Admin panel development | $7,600 | $8,700 |
| Quality Assurance | $4,100 | $3,700 |
| Project Management | $33,300 | $41,100 |
Must Read: How to Build a Carpooling App In the Easiest Way?
Astounding Features of BlaBlaCar App
There are multiple features of the BlaBlaCar application and some best of them that you must try in your BlaBlaCar-like app are listed below:
User Profiles and Verification
BlaBlaCar gives users account creation options to enter their personal information and travel preferences. When performed, verification helps increase community trust: users have access to ratings and reviews of other people, so Carpool Dubai becomes safer.
Smart Search and Booking
Riders and drivers can easily look for others through keys in their starting point and destination as well as the time of travel. The app gives a list of relevant trip options to the passengers, where one can sort outcomes in line with price, the time it will take, and the driver’s choice to book easily.
In-App Messaging
The in-app messaging allows free communication between drivers and passengers regarding the best meeting point and other travel-related issues. This functionality creates an avenue for users to identify and bond with each other hence improving the journey experience.
Secure Payment System
On the BlaBlaCar passenger side, a secure payment gateway is designed to enable passengers to make their payment for the available seats online in advance. This makes the financial transaction safe with both the costs paid in advance until the entire trip is over, which simplifies the process.
Real-Time GPS Tracking
This has an inbuilt GPS tracking that enables the passenger to track the driver throughout the trip. This not only enhances safety but also trust in the right route hence meets users’ expectations in a given service.
Rating and Review System
The interaction of the drivers and passengers is followed by the possibility to rate each other after every journey. This accountability helps to ensure that quality service is delivered to the population within that community since future users can learn from the past experiences of the present users through their feedback.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the creation of an app that is similar to BlaBlaCar in today’s world must be based on deep market research and the desire to offer people more affordable as well as environmentally friendly means of transportation. Through proper market analysis, easy-to-navigate design, and including critical features such as the ability for a user to pay for a ride safely, and GPS tracking the user can build quite a relevant platform for people today concerned with the impact of climate change and willing to commute effectively.
As you will know, maintenance and user support are very important factors to guarantee that the application stays useful and to satisfy the needs of its users in the future. Carpe diem and don’t miss this great chance to shape the future of travel by extending the concept of carpooling! You need to hire mobile app developers in UAE to develop an app like BlaBlaCar and if you are confused choose the best mobile app development company. Then, no worries who can be the better one other than TechGropse? Contact us now and know the best-dealing prince to build an app like BlaBlaCar.
Hello All,
Aman Mishra has years of experience in the IT industry. His passion for helping people in all aspects of mobile app development. Therefore, He write several blogs that help the readers to get the appropriate information about mobile app development trends, technology, and many other aspects.In addition to providing mobile app development services in USA, he also provides maintenance & support services for businesses of all sizes. He tried to solve all their readers’ queries and ensure that the given information would be helpful for them.
