Split-It! is one of the potentially most useful mobile apps that we've seen launching in Singapore these few months. Billed as a "location-based app that provides a safe and fuss-free way for users who are travelling to and from the same destinations to share taxis and split the fare", it promises to solve the problems of long taxi queues and redundancy over similar taxi trips taken by different people. Given that Singapore face traffic congestions issues everyday, we can see the value in getting people who are travelling to and fro the same places share their cab rides.
One of the challenges for the company is for them to rapidly get user awareness and usage before network effects kick in to solidify the app's value proposition. Although it is free to use, not many people know about the existence of such taxi apps, and it may be difficult or even impossible for any single firm to drive the diffusion of awareness and acceptance of such a service. It might however be possible to grow awareness of the app amongst a niche group of people who face long taxi rides everyday (those working in the city).
After talking to the founders, we believe that Split-It's team has the experience and resources to develop this new market for taxi sharing, and we wish them all the best of luck in getting their critical mass of users.
Since the app is currently free to use, we're putting it on our TouristPads for a limited time to gather some feedback from our customers.