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myimaginarywonderland · 5 months

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For anyone that wants some race recommendations for FE, here are my top 3 race recommendations (as a JEV and chaos fan) from every season. (I am also biased for many other drivers which you will see.)

Season 1

Of course you have to watch the first race (Beijing). First race of the series, Nick Heidfeld flip (literally.) Just the opportunity to actually watch the first race of a racing series shouldn't be passed up.

Next, is Buenos Aires because watching Antonio (Da Costa) win that race in that car was like a fever dream. Actually that was the moment where you realised that there was so much possibly for many drivers in this series.

And lastly is the first London race with Sam's (Bird) home win and another JEV podium. To watch a driver win a home race is always special.

Season 2

Mexico because Jérôme won (outliner wins.)

London finale (both race definitely.) The Buemi/DiGrassi rivalry was incredible the entire season but the double header? Wow.

Season 3

Omg Berlin. I loved Felix (Rosenqvist) when he was at FE and that Mahindra area was just so beautiful.

Montreal. When JEV finally won it was like a long time coming and the start of an era.

The first New York race. I am a Sam fan and that entire double header was just beautiful. Truly a great track.

Season 4

Santiago!!! Omg the Jeandré race. The records that were set here, the start of JEV's streak, everything about this race. This is iconic.

Mexico! Daniel (Abt) finally won a race and it was great. Also that atmosphere at the track could not be beaten.

The last one is though but for me as a fan it would have the be the last race when JEV fully won the championship. But the second Hong Kong race or Berlin deserve just as much attention.

Season 5

Marrakesh! Jérôme and Mahindra had everyone cheering for them that race. Literally such a beautiful heartwarming win.

Listen I am critical about rain races but I just can't not talk about Paris. That podium had my heart. And as the first genuine rain race you have to watch it.

Again, there are so many great third picks here. Rome (nearly the Lotterer win) could be it or Santiago? Or Bern?

Season 6

Diryah (the second race.) I miss Alex (Sims) soo much.

The third Berlin race. This is complelty biased because I loved all the drivers on that podium and we had a driver win at his home race. Listen, that Berlin 6 race final was cursed but it was also fun.

I would add Marrakesh just to escape the Berlin hell. But again, I also think there are so many great other races like Santiago with Max (Günthers) first win.

Season 7

Again biased pick but the first Rome race! A JEV win with a chaotic race.

The second London race! Alex Lynn! The man, the myth, the legend.

I would say the second Mexico race because I adore Edo.

This season is meh mostly because of the qualy format affecting racing negatively.

Still has bangers though.

Season 8

New York first race! Nick Cassidy finally winning a race. Also I love New York as a race so biased.

The second Rome race. Again Rome often offers great racing and I especially loved the second podium on that double header.

I think Monaco is great because you have both championship fighters on the podium in 1-2.

Season 9

Hyderabad! JEV win!

Cape Town! What a wonderful first race we had there.

Monaco has to be here because you had all three championship fighters on the podium (also I adore Nick Cassidy and think he should have won that championship because I am petty like that. )

Bottom line is there are so many great races in FE and every single one is worth watching because of the fun and unpredictability. Add to that the clear lack of one front runner or even a true top of the grid and you have potential for genuine great racing.

Please if you have the time watch all the races for yourself because every single one (even the ones I dislike) deserve your attention.

#fe #formula e

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, May 28, 2021

San Jose Shooting Leaves Eight Dead (CNN) An employee of the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), a public transit operation in San Jose, California, went to work as usual early Wednesday morning at the VTA maintenance and dispatch rail yard. But that morning, he brought a gun and opened fire, killing at least eight coworkers and wounding others, one critically, before committing suicide. Around the same time as the shooting, a house in San Jose that is believed to be that of the shooter erupted in flames. Investigators are looking into the gunman’s motive. This mass shooting is the 232nd incident so far this year in the U.S. in which at least four people were shot.

U.S. drivers to get hit by soaring pump prices over Memorial Day holiday (Reuters) U.S. motorists will see the highest gasoline prices in seven years when they hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, as fuel demand surges alongside coronavirus vaccination rates. Retail gasoline prices are at about $3.04 a gallon on average nationwide, the most expensive since 2014, data from the American Automobile Association showed. And after a year of lockdowns to curb the coronavirus pandemic, tens of millions of American road-trippers are expected to be stung by those prices: More than 34 million Americans are expected to take to the highways between May 27 and May 31, AAA expects, an increase of 53% from last year but still down 10% from 2019.

Less defunding? (WSJ) One year after the movement to “defund” law enforcement began to upend municipal budgets, many American cities are restoring money to their police departments or proposing to spend more. In the nation’s 20 largest local law-enforcement agencies, city and county leaders want funding increases for nine of the 12 departments where next year’s budgets already have been proposed. The increases range from 1% to nearly 6%.

Competition, not engagement (Bloomberg) The U.S. is entering a period of intense competition with China as the government running the world’s second-biggest economy becomes ever more tightly controlled by President Xi Jinping, the White House’s top official for Asia said. “The period that was broadly described as engagement has come to an end,” Kurt Campbell, the U.S. coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council, said Wednesday at an event hosted by Stanford University. U.S. policy toward China will now operate under a “new set of strategic parameters,” Campbell said, adding that “the dominant paradigm is going to be competition.”

Poll shows Argentines expect inflation to hit 50% in next year (Buenos Aires Times) Argentines’ expectations for inflation over the next year hit a record, as government price controls have failed to tame elevated food costs. Argentines’ expectations for inflation over the next year hit a record, as government price controls have failed to tame elevated food costs. Prices rose four percent or more in three of the first four months this year, prompting the government to extend some price controls and temporarily ban beef exports. Alongside concerns of no economic plan, the government’s money printing last year to finance Covid-19 social spending is also fueling expectations for elevated inflation in 2021.

Relations in the ditch (Nikkei Asian Review) The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to freeze the ratification process of an investment pact with China—a deal that Beijing six months ago considered a big strategic victory. It has sent shock waves throughout China, with only one month and change before arguably the most important event in President Xi Jinping’s era, the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s establishment, on July 1. Some party members are worried that the centenary’s festive mood will be dampened by the harsh diplomatic reality. Not only are China’s relations with the U.S. bad, but now EU relations are stuck in a ditch.

China keeps diplomats out of espionage trial of Australian Yang Hengjun (Reuters) Australia’s ambassador to China was denied entry to a heavily guarded Beijing court on Thursday that is hearing an espionage case against Australian blogger Yang Hengjun, at a time of worsening ties between the two nations. China said the case involved state secrets and so could not be heard in open court. Yang, an Australian citizen born in China, wrote about Chinese and U.S. politics online as a high-profile blogger and also penned a series of spy novels before his detention two years ago. Diplomatic ties between the two nations have deteriorated sharply since Yang was detained, with China imposing trade sanctions on produce from Australia and reacting angrily to its call for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, as well as its 5G ban on telecoms giant Huawei. Details of the Yang case have been shrouded in secrecy, with no information released on which espionage agency he is alleged to have acted for. If convicted Yang faces a jail term of 10 years or more on charges of endangering national security.

The Super Rich Are Choosing Singapore as the World’s Safest Haven (Bloomberg) When Singaporean car dealer Keith Oh first read the Facebook message, he wasn’t sure it was real. A Chinese client ordered a S$1.1 million ($830,000) Bentley—sight unseen—over the social network. “They just asked for the price and when we could do the delivery, that’s all,” he said. “It’s a million dollars to us but it’s probably nothing to them.” Money is sloshing around Singapore like never before. As the coronavirus pandemic hammers Southeast Asia and political turmoil threatens Hong Kong, the city has become a safe harbor for some of the region’s wealthiest tycoons and their families. Singapore has long been a draw for wealthy Chinese, Indonesians and Malaysians who would come for short trips. The pandemic has changed all that, prompting many tycoons and their families to stay for months, in some cases seeking residency to ride out the storm. On a per capita basis, the mortality rates in Malaysia and Indonesia are more than 10 and 30 times higher than in Singapore, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

A Wave of Afghan Surrenders to the Taliban Picks Up Speed (NYT) Ammunition was depleted inside the bedraggled outposts in Laghman Province. Food was scarce. Some police officers hadn’t been paid in five months. Then, just as American troops began leaving the country in early May, Taliban fighters besieged seven rural Afghan military outposts across the wheat fields and onion patches of the province, in eastern Afghanistan. The insurgents enlisted village elders to visit the outposts bearing a message: Surrender or die. By mid-month, security forces had surrendered all seven outposts after extended negotiations, according to village elders. At least 120 soldiers and police were given safe passage to the government-held provincial center in return for handing over weapons and equipment. “We told them, ‘Look, your situation is bad—reinforcements aren’t coming,’” said Nabi Sarwar Khadim, 53, one of several elders who negotiated the surrenders. Since May 1, at least 26 outposts and bases in just four provinces—Laghman, Baghlan, Wardak and Ghazni—have surrendered after such negotiations, according to village elders and government officials. With morale diving as American troops leave, and the Taliban seizing on each surrender as a propaganda victory, each collapse feeds the next in the Afghan countryside.

Israeli Police Round Up Palestinian Protesters Out of Global Spotlight (The Intercept) Palestinian activists urged the world not to look away from their struggle for freedom and equality following the ceasefire in Gaza, as Israeli police began rounding up Palestinian citizens of Israel who took part in demonstrations described as riots by the authorities. At least 74 Palestinians were detained by Monday afternoon, in the first hours of what Israel’s police force is calling “Operation Law and Order.” Palestinian rights groups called the planned arrest of up to 500 protesters—on charges ranging from attacks on the police to vandalism to online incitement—a blatant crackdown on dissent, timed to coincide with the dimming of the global spotlight on the conflict. “Israeli forces and police are going on a mass arresting rampage in Lydd, and other Palestinian cities in an attempt to ‘even the score’ with Palestinians that spoke up against their ethnic cleansing,” the Palestinian writer Mariam Barghouti observed on Twitter, as video of two men being detained and blindfolded in the city Israelis call Lod circulated online. “This is what we warned about. Israel will target us all when you stop looking.” “The world tends to look away as soon as Israeli lives are no longer threatened by rockets but it is stuff like this, that Israel does to Palestinians every day, that guarantees future rounds,” the writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer commented on the same images.

UN envoy: Syrian people face immense humanitarian suffering (AP) The U.N. special envoy for Syria said Wednesday it’s “a tragic irony” that ordinary Syrians are facing “immense and growing humanitarian suffering” at this time of relative calm in the more than 10-year conflict. Geir Pedersen pointed to “economic destitution, a pandemic, displacement, detention and abduction—all while violent conflict, terrorism and human rights abuses continue” in the country. While the military situation is relatively calm in some areas, Pedersen said, “recurring signs of a hot conflict are abundant.” He cited spikes in violence in several areas, with shelling by both sides, airstrikes including some by Israel, and more attacks attributed to the Islamic State extremist group. On the economic front, Pedersen said, the Syrian pound has stabilized somewhat “but the price of essential goods and transportation costs are increasingly outside of the grasp of many Syrians.” And in many areas, basic services including water, electricity and health “remain compromised,” he said. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock stressed the dire water situation, saying reduced water levels in the Euphrates river which started in January “reached a critical point this month.”

Famine Looms in Ethiopia’s War-Ravaged Tigray Region, U.N. Says (NYT) Famine is now knocking on the door of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where a civil war that erupted last year has drastically cut the food supply and prevented relief workers from helping the hungry, the top U.N. humanitarian official has warned. In a confidential note to the United Nations Security Council, the official, Mark Lowcock, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said sections of Tigray, a region of more than five million people, are now one step from famine—in part because the government has obstructed aid shipments. “Humanitarian operations are being attacked, obstructed or delayed in delivering lifesaving assistance,” Mr. Lowcock wrote, and at least eight aid workers have been killed.

Thousands evacuate Congo’s Goma amid more volcanic activity (AP) Tens of thousands of people are fleeing the city of Goma in eastern Congo fearing another volcanic eruption by Mount Nyiragongo, which spewed lava near the city last week. Traffic was jammed and pedestrians streamed through the streets, desperate to escape the impending danger. A new eruption could occur at any moment, the military governor of Congo’s North Kivu province, Lt. Gen. Constat Ndima Kongba, announced early Thursday. He ordered the evacuation of 10 of the 18 neighborhoods in the city of 2 million people. The center of Goma, which was spared when the volcano erupted last week, is now under threat, with activity being reported near the urban area and Lake Kivu, Kongba said. Residents were advised to carry very little and told not to return to their homes until advised by authorities. Many people were seen heading northwest toward the town of Sake and east toward Rwanda. International organizations such as the U.N. mission in Congo had on Wednesday already begun evacuating their staff.

#headlines #news

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gossipgirl2019-blog · 6 years

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Maria Teresa de Filippis Became the First Woman to Race in Formula One by Driving Juan Manuel Fangio's Old Maserati

New Post has been published on http://gr8gossip.xyz/maria-teresa-de-filippis-became-the-first-woman-to-race-in-formula-one-by-driving-juan-manuel-fangios-old-maserati/

Maria Teresa de Filippis Became the First Woman to Race in Formula One by Driving Juan Manuel Fangio's Old Maserati

Photo: Giancarlo Botti (Getty)

She was raised on the scent of racing. Daughter of an automotive engineer and the youngest of five very competitive children, Maria Teresa de Filippis didn’t set out to change the face of racing—but change it she did.

Born in Naples in 1926, de Filippis stumbled into racing almost by accident. Her focus until then had been competitive, yes, but had been channeled into things like horse riding and tennis. It was only at the age of 22 and only after a bet between her brothers that she wouldn’t be able to drive fast that finally goaded Maria behind the wheel.

History, though, has forgotten to record her brothers’ reaction to her winning her first race at Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni in a Fiat 500. But I’m quite sure their youngest sister was quite pleased to have accidentally stumbled into her calling.

Her first events were most local, more down-to-earth. De Filippis honed her skills in difficult hillclimbs in southern Italy where she found herself to be the only woman in the field. Something about that fact, combined with her innate talent, pushed her forward.

In 1949, de Filippis purchased a Urania 750cc and started expanding her scope. Still focusing on her Italian homeland, de Filippis began to travel the country to score three class wins and three class seconds in what can be considered her first real season as a racing driver. Even in events where she was entering alongside up to one hundred more experienced drivers, she brought home a sixth place in the Stella Alpina and a ninth in class in the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti.

The Urania had worked well for de Filippis, so she kept up with it for the following season. She entered her first Mille Miglia (although she, along with many others, didn’t finish) and became involved in a romantic affair with Formula One driver Luigi Musso. According to the historical gossip, Musso had quite the complicated love life. He was a big fan of multiple women back in his day, including, y’know, an actual wife—but that competition off the track seemed to inspire de Filippis. Any time Musso was racing alongside her, Maria had some of her most incredible performances.

De Filippis kept racing and seeing Musso for several years. When their relationship ended in 1953, it seemed to be on amicable terms. The two remained friends, with Musso selling her his old 2000cc Maserati A6GC.

Photo: Giancarlo Botti (Getty)

It was also a time that saw de Filippis entering non-championship Grands Prix around Italy. Here, she could compete against actual Grand Prix drivers who dipped into the regional divisions in hopes of scooping up extra cash, as well as some of the most competitive up-and-coming drivers who were looking to impress the big-name teams. Her best finish was a second place in the Napoli Grand Prix, with fifth and sixth places being about her average.

1955 was a season of highs and lows. Just racing in one category wasn’t going to cut it for Maria Teresa. She kept up her Grand Prix racing, winning a race in Sardinia and once again securing runner-up at Napoli—but she also returned to running in hillclimbs. It isn’t noted why, exactly, she decided to diversify her season. Maybe it was money, maybe boredom, maybe just a red-blooded desire to race everything she could get her hands on.

Her increased season also saw her first big accidents. At Mugello, de Filippis crashed Musso’s Maserati—when the emergency services got to her, the car was precariously dangling over a cliff. It was a lengthy process removing her from the vehicle, given that it was a matter of not jarring her body too much while also, y’know, not pitching the car over the cliff. She was eager to get back behind the wheel, perhaps too much so. At a race in Sardinia, she crashed yet again, this time putting an end to her season.

1956 saw something of the same. Taking a keen interest in long-distance sportscar events, de Filippis took her first trip to the Americas for the Buenos Aires 1000km at the start of the year—only to crash once again, this time swerving to avoid another accident and striking a telephone pole. She headed home to nurse a broken shoulder and was back racing around Italy that summer.

It paid off: she won at Caserta and took yet another second at Napoli. And, in 1957, she joined Scuderia Centro Sud, then a leading race team. She was promised an eventual entrance in a Formula One race with them, so she stuck out what proved to be a difficult season. She wasn’t provided with much money, but she cobbled together what she could to purchase her own Maserati 250F Grand Prix Car—a privateer entry in Formula One several years before and one that took Juan Manuel Fangio to victory.

From there, her goal was specifically Formula One. Maria Teresa entered several non-championship Grands Prix, and after an encouraging fifth place at Syracuse that earned her the title of highest-placed debutant, she found herself entered in her first World Championship Grand Prix.

Her first attempt was Monaco in 1958, a difficult track for even the most experienced drivers. Only sixteen drivers were allowed to enter that race, which meant that sixteen others weren’t going to make the cut. De Filippis was among those who wouldn’t be seeking glory at Monte Carlo. She could, however, content herself knowing that she’d taken home a different title: the first woman to ever enter in a World Championship Grand Prix.

Photo: Getty

Just one month later, she lined up near the back of the starting grid for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Starting nineteenth, she overtook big names like Jo Bonnier to secure a tenth place finish. Back then, that wasn’t a points-scoring position. But Maria Teresa could be content knowing she had become the first woman to actually compete in and finish a Formula One race—and also earned the reputation of driving her Maserati too fast, according to Fangio himself.

She started a Grand Prix in Portugal but suffered a terminal engine failure a mere six laps into the race. She tried her hand at Monza and was forced to retire again, this time after 57 of 70 laps.

She attempted the Monte Carlo Grand Prix in 1959 with Jean Behra’s team in a Formula 2 Porsche but suffered the same fate as her first attempt: she didn’t qualify. She made her way up to the United Kingdom for her first attempt at a race, but once again did not qualify.

That August, Jean Behra was killed in a race that de Filippis had intended to enter but withdrew from at the last minute. The previous year, former lover Musso was killed in the French Grand Prix. Both of these events hit de Filippis hard. She was having several difficult seasons in a row only for two of her closest companions on the circuit to lose their lives.

It was too much for her. De Filippis retired from racing almost immediately after Behra’s death and instead focused on family life and building a career where she knew she and her comrades wouldn’t lose their lives at every turn.

She didn’t step foot on a track for years, but in 1969, de Filippis joined a club for former Grand Prix drivers and was finally ready to begin telling her story. Somehow, as the years passed and people began to realize that only a handful of women were even being granted the opportunity to attempt racing in F1, de Filippis’ profile began to rise. People started to realize that she’d done something pretty incredible in an era that we normally consider less friendly to women than, say, the 1970s or 1990s.

After several years of enjoying invitations as guest of honor for events like Goodwood, de Filippis got behind the wheel of a car again in 2006 at the age of 80, where she received a warm reception. In 2016 at the age of 89, de Filippis passed away.

Maria Teresa de Filippis was quite the anomaly, almost unrecognizably so at first. At a mere 100 lbs and short stature, she carved her own path into the exclusive world of Formula One. To this day, she remains one of two women to ever start a Formula One race—something folks didn’t even really begin to take notice of until a string of unsuccessful female entrants were unable to qualify.

Despite that, de Filippis has shown that, even in an era of difficult-to-handle cars and rampant danger, a woman could be just as capable as anyone else when it came to racing.

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fmservers · 6 years

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Latin America is the next stage in the race for dominance in the ride-hailing market

Nathan Lustig Contributor

Nathan Lustig is an entrepreneur and managing partner at Magma Partners, a seed-stage investment fund in Santiago, Chile.

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As the number of competitors in the ride-hailing industry dwindles, geographic expansion is emerging as the next proving ground to determine who will be the victor in the ride-hailing market.

The race for control of the industry, which is estimated by Goldman Sachs to grow eightfold to $285 billion by 2030, is escalating with China’s Didi Chuxing already surpassing Uber as the most valuable startup in the world. With a recent valuation of approximately $56 billion, compared to Uber’s $48 billion, Didi is posing a real threat to Uber’s operations and shows no signs of slowing down. Cementing its position as the top ride-hailing service in China, Didi is now turning its attention to another region of the world that is still filled with vast opportunities and not yet dominated by a single taxi alternative: Latin America.

While many ride-hailing and sharing services have already sprung up and faced regulation in cities across Latin America such as Mexico City, Montevideo, and São Paulo, the region still presents an enormous opportunity for the companies that can adapt and move fast enough.

The current opportunities in Latin America

Unlike many other regions of the world, Latin America is still very much reliant on traditional forms of public transportation such as buses, trains, and subway systems. What’s more, larger cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City, and Bogota simply cannot support any more vehicles on the road without an infrastructure overhaul. Large metro areas are already at or above maximum capacity during peak hours, making owning and commuting with a car more of a hassle than a luxury. As a result, many commuters across Latin America are putting less importance on owning a vehicle and opting to use alternative modes of transportation and on-demand services instead.

Beyond the rising demand for alternative transportation options, it’s also worth noting that Latin America is the world’s second-fastest-growing mobile market. In a region of approximately 640 million people, there are more than 200 million smartphone users. By 2020, predictions say that 63% of Latin America’s population will have access to the mobile Internet. Latin American smartphone users have quickly adopted global apps, such as Uber and Facebook. However, tech companies have yet to fully tap into the region’s potential.

Chilean taxi drivers demonstrate along Alameda Avenue against US on-demand ride service giant Uber, in Santiago, on July 10, 2017. Uber smartphone app has faced stiff resistance from traditional taxi drivers the world over, as well as bans in some places over safety concerns and questions over legal issues, including taxes. (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

The key players

Uber

According to a Dalia survey, Latin Americans with smartphones that live in urban areas are the most likely to have used a ride-hailing app or site. Overall, 45% have used an app, with Mexico taking the top position in the region at 58%.

Uber entered Latin America in 2013 and claims to have more than 36 million active users in the region, proving employment for more than a million drivers. The company quickly dominated Mexico, which is now its second-largest market after the U.S. In fact, up until recently Uber claimed a near monopoly on ride-sharing in Mexico with few competitors. Uber also has operations in more than 16 Latin American countries.

99 (formerly 99Taxis)

With an urban population of approximately 180 million, Brazil is the ultimate prize for ride-hailing and taxi companies with several services competing for market share. Most notably, 99 (formerly “99Taxis”) was able to gain momentum early on with exclusive services that extended beyond basic ride-hailing (such as its 99 TOP and 99 POP services) and better tools for its drivers.

With over 200,000 drivers and 14 million users, 99 attracted the attention of investors worldwide, including that of China’s Didi Chuxing. Didi invested $100 million into 99 in January 2018 before acquiring 99 entirely months later for nearly $1 billion to take on Uber in Latin America, shortly after it acquired Uber’s operations in China.

Easy Taxi

Rocket Internet -backed taxi booking service, Easy Taxi, started in Latin America in 2011, two years after Uber first started in San Francisco. The company provides an easy way to book a taxi and track it in real-time. Today, the company is owned by Maxi Mobility, which acquired the company from Rocket Internet in 2017 for an undisclosed amount. Maxi Mobility also owns Cabify, and operates across many Latin American markets, including Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Panama, Brazil, Peru, and Chile, in addition to a handful of markets elsewhere.

To solidify its position in the region, Easy Taxi merged with Colombian taxi-booking app Tappsi in 2015. Tappsi launched in Bogotá in 2012 and was doing quite well in the Colombian market. The merger allowed the companies to pool their resources just as other competitors, such as Uber, began entering the region.

Easy Taxi maintains impressive traction, raising more than $75 million to date. But as the ride-hailing battle in Latin America pushes forward, the company is rumored to be a likely investment or acquisition target for Uber, Didi, or the largest global investor in this space, Softbank.

Cabify

Cabify is a Spanish company that provides private vehicles for hire via its smartphone app. Although founded in Madrid, Cabify has always positioned itself as a Latin American company, investing heavily across the region. The company was able to gain a strong foothold due to some significant funding raised by its parent company, Maxi Mobility. In January 2018, Maxi Mobility raised another $160 million and said the funding would be used to accelerate both of its companies, Cabify and Easy Taxi, in the 130 cities where they operate throughout Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.

Cabify reported it has over 13 million users and grew its installed-base by 500% between 2016 and 2017, tripling its user base and fulfilling six times more trips in 2017.

Cabify competes directly with Uber, 99, and Easy Taxi in Brazil; however, it reportedly has around 40% market share in Sao Pãolo, one of the largest cities in all of Latin America.

Smaller players to watch

Beat (Formerly Taxibeat)

Beat is a profitable ride-hailing service founded in Athens, Greece that also operates in Peru. Beat is slowly expanding its operations across Latin America, though expansion appears to be limited to Chile for now.

As of January 2017, Beat had around 15,000 drivers and 800,000 customers in Peru.

Nekso

Toronto-based Nekso bet on the Latin American taxi-hailing market before its home market with a pilot launch in Venezuela in 2016. Nekso was able to gain acceptance from the taxi industries in Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Panama with its slightly different approach to ride-hailing.

The company connects a network of 550+ licensed taxi companies with thousands of drivers and allows users to flag down a cab off the street and without using in-app requests. Nekso also uses artificial intelligence technology to offer drivers real-time updates on weather, events, and traffic data to predict areas of a city which may need more drivers. The company claims taxi drivers can spend up to two-thirds of their day looking for or waiting for riders and that Nekso technology helps drivers increase their daily rides by more than 25% percent.

At the end of 2017, Nekso boasted around 150,000 users and facilitated approximately 400,000 rides per month. Now, the company plans to make its debut in Canada as well as expand to more countries in South America, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Peru.

Didi, 99, and the next phase

99’s new owner, Didi, which dominates the Asian market and was able to defeat Uber in China, has big plans for international expansion. Its acquisition of 99 reveals the potential it sees in Latin America but also adds to the complicated web of global ride-hailing services.

After Didi shut down and acquired Uber’s assets in China, it also bought a stake in Uber for $1 billion. Uber, Didi, and 99 are all backed by Softbank. However, everywhere outside of China, Didi and Uber are competing with each other. Didi’s full plans for 99 are not yet obvious, but the company has already set up an office in Mexico and begun poaching staff from Uber in Mexico.

With an infusion of capital, Latin America’s ride-hailing industry is multiplying. That said, companies that want to compete in the region will need to use an aggressive and strategic approach that can withstand the uniqueness of commuters and transportation options in the region. It’s only a matter of time until we see if these companies continue ramping up their operations for geographic domination, or if we see more and more partner up to advance their technologies and address other looming threats – such as bike sharing, scooter sharing, and even autonomous vehicles.

Two of the founders of 99, who sold their company to Didi, have already launched a dockless bike sharing startup called Yellow in Brazil and raised $9 million to grow its operations. No other scooter company has taken the plunge into Latin America yet besides Grin Scooters in Mexico City, but other larger cities such as Buenos Aires, Bogota, Santiago, and Lima would be ideal markets if the companies can figure out pricing as well as security and safety issues first.

Didi’s activity in Brazil and Mexico is sure to trigger a new wave of competition between existing ride-hailing players and create an even more tangled web of alliances and acquisitions. Whether or not these companies can adapt and move fast enough to rise to the top, and deal with the other looming alternative modes of transportation, remains to be seen.

Via Jonathan Shieber https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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European Airline Executives Still Think There Are Too Many Airlines

Aircraft at Heathrow's Terminal 5. The big airline groups are keen on further consolidation. Heathrow Airport

Skift Take: It seems like there is a renewed appetite among Europe's big airline groups to reduce the number of players in the market. They may find it hard to do while fuel remains cheap, but when it starts to creep up, more deals will likely occur.

— Patrick Whyte

Plenty of people have been saying the airline market is too fragmented for a while now, but a series of deals in recent weeks have pushed a renewed desire to shrink the pool.

Alitalia’s ongoing bankruptcy looks like it is creating an opportunity for one of the larger carriers to take a substantial slice of the Italian market. And Air France-KLM Group has taken a 31 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic as part of a wider reshuffle of its relationships with partners Delta Air Lines and China Eastern.

Consolidation in Europe hasn’t happened nearly as quickly as it has in the U.S., where over the past decade nine large airlines have been reduced to four.

Mergers and acquisitions in Europe have reduced the number, with arguably five big companies – Ryanair, Lufthansa Group, International Airlines Group, Air France-KLM, and Easyjet – at the top. But there are still plenty of mid-sized carriers carrying millions of passengers each year.

The reasons for their continued existence are part circumstantial and part structural. Cheap fuel has meant that even the most inefficient airlines have been able to keep flying. When this era ends, its likely they’ll go bankrupt or be snapped up by one of the big groups. Legacy issues such as leases and labor contracts — something that U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy helps mitigate — also make some independent carriers unattractive targets for acquisition.

What Airline Executives Are Saying

In recent earnings calls, talk among European airline executives once again turned toward consolidations.

Jean-Marc Janaillac, CEO of Air France-KLM, is certainly bullish about his company’s new venture.

“The global agreement with Delta and Virgin Atlantic on one side and with China Eastern on the other side is unprecedented in the airline industry. It will allow Air France-KLM to be the European pillar of the most powerful commercial and equity partnership,” he said on an earnings call after releasing the company’s second-quarter results.

The deal certainly brings all the airlines closer together and will likely be the consolidation of two separate joint ventures into one.

“If we look to then what is next, we do have a couple of drivers for change really. Today, there’s two joint ventures. One is the joint venture between Delta and Virgin between US and London. And on the other-hand side, there’s the European joint venture with Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta,” said��Pieter Elbers, CEO of KLM. “In fact, we have two joint ventures next to each other. So, there’s nothing more [logical] really than combining these two joint ventures into one and making sure that we give all the synergies and benefits to our customers.”

While any new grouping won’t necessarily vastly improve the offering, it does help clean things up, according to aviation consultant John Grant.

“It is unlikely that Virgin will develop services from either Paris or Amsterdam as a result of the development,” he said. “We might see further Virgin services replacing existing Delta Air Lines services from Heathrow, but that wouldn’t be a surprise since it is already happening on markets such as Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle. So in essence, nothing significant is likely to happen.”

Rivals’ Views

Interestingly, both of Air France-KLM’s big rivals – International Airlines Group (IAG) and Lufthansa – welcomed the tie-up.

“I think, in general, all consolidation is good,” said Ulrik Svensson, Lufthansa’s chief financial officer, on the company’s earnings call. “The European market is very fragmented. The airline industry, in general, is very fragmented. And looking at what has happened in the U.S., I think that helped the industry quite dramatically. So I think this is a positive sign.”

IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh had a pretty similar response on IAG’s earning call, albeit one that was a little less effusive.

While he said the public change in ownership in Virgin Atlantic was mostly meaningless “because it is effectively controlled by Delta,” Walsh, like Lufthansa��s Svensson, sees the benefits in consolidation.

“I’d have to say generally it’s a positive, because it does move the consolidation agenda forward,” Walsh said.

Low-Cost Moves

All three of the big airline groups have invested in low-cost operations to varying degrees. Air France-KLM has two budget carriers (Transavia and Hop), which will soon be joined by Joon. Lufthansa has Eurowings and IAG has Vueling and newcomer Level.

Joon was launched in July and raised eyebrows by revealing that it would be aimed at millennial travelers. So far, only routes from Paris to Berlin, Lisbon, Porto, and Barcelona, which will begin later this year, have been announced. Long-haul destinations will follow in 2018.

IAG’s Level started flying in June, and Walsh said he was “surprised” by how strong bookings had been with special reference to the routes between Barcelona and Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. Walsh also expects a dedicated management team for the unit will be in place by the company’s first quarter (end of March, 2018).

Lufthansa’s Eurowings has increased in size this year thanks to a deal to take control of sister carrier Brussels Airlines. Eurowings also gained 33 aircraft as part of a wet-lease deal between Lufthansa and struggling Air Berlin, and Lufthansa’s Svensson hinted that the number may be increased.

“We are looking at quite a number of different scenarios when it comes to Air Berlin. And we will be indeed interested to take on more wet leases if that opportunity would show itself,” he said.

These low-cost units not only ape the likes of Ryanair and EasyJet, but also routes offered by Norwegian Air. Norwegian is the poster child of the low-cost, long-haul revolution but recently it has run into troubles of its own.

The Brexit Effect

IAG, Air France-KLM, and Lufthansa have all fallen behind Ryanair, which is now the biggest airline in Europe.

For Chief Executive Michael O’Leary, the biggest issue for his airline is Brexit and he has been almost relentless with his constant warnings about the damaging impact it will have if not managed properly.

Should the UK leave the European Union without a deal on aviation, it will have no established rules to fall back on and O’Leary has raised the prospect of flights being grounded.

Ryanair along with IAG (through British Airways) and now Air France-KLM, thanks to the Virgin Atlantic deal, all have skin in the game and will be hoping a sector-specific deal is thrashed out.

“We will be trying to keep this issue front and center in the UK,” said O’Leary. “I don’t think anybody should get panicked, but you know until the UK begins to realize the weakness of their negotiating position particularly in this sector, there’s a real risk of a disruption to flights from April 2019 onwards.”

O’Leary believes IAG itself might be under threat because of European Union rules on ownership (although Walsh believes this is misplaced). An airline operating in the European Union must be at least 50.1 percent owned by EU nationals, and when the UK leaves, UK shareholders will no longer count towards this number.

The impact on Germany-based Lufthansa will likely be minimal, and it may even benefit from some of the problems at its rivals.

“There are so many different loose elements” that could affect the airline industry in general and Lufthansa specifically, said Svensson, the Lufthansa CFO. “Of course, you could say that with Brexit, as such, Frankfurt is probably a winner of the cities, and that helps us being based in Frankfurt.”

The Bottom Line

If you only had the most recent set of results to go on, you’d get the impression that European airlines were in great shape and therefore a sound investment case. But dig a little deeper and things are far less clear cut.

In a note to investors entitled “European Airlines: Beware the short-term sugar rush,” analysts from Liberum wrote: “Earnings momentum for the European network airlines is undoubtedly positive for now, led by better than expected unit revenue trends. Inbound long haul demand is recovering and fuel prices remain benign. A stronger euro could extend the short-term boost a little longer. However, we believe positive short-term earnings trends mask underlying challenges at many airlines.”

Of the big three — Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and IAG — only the latter is awarded a “buy” rating and when the markets conditions become tougher, all of them are likely to face much bigger challenges.

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