RUN FOR THE ROAD
Another NYC ride-sharing app debuts
Another New York City ride-sharing app is tailgating Uber.
Juno — a new app that charges drivers commissions of 10 percent of the total fare, less than half of what Uber and Lyft do — on Wednesday logged its 1 millionth ride since its invitation-only launch on May 10, The Post has learned.
That makes Juno the latest — and fastest-growing — challenger to Uber in the Big Apple, an increasingly crowded space for ride-sharing apps, which also includes Lyft, the carpooling app Via and others.
Beginning on Wednesday Juno was available to all.
The New York-based company lately has been booking rides at a clip of 100,000 a week, founder and Chief Executive Talmon Marco told The Post on Wednesday.
That number is still dwarfed by the 1.5 million weekly Big Apple rides logged by Uber, according to Uber officials.
Still, it’s impressive for an app that has been live for just 3¹/2 months. The lifting of the invite-only restriction may accelerate growth.
Juno said it had amassed a 40,000-person waiting list.
By comparison, Lyft booked 280,000 rides last week, following a July that saw rides soar 380 percent from a year earlier, a source close to the company said .
Lyft was averaging about 160,000 rides per week in March, according to the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission.
Elsewhere, Via — the popular carpooling app launched in Manhattan two years ago — says it books about 200,000 weekly rides.
Juno’s out-of-the-gate charge has been fueled, in part, by a 25-percent introductory discount rate for passengers and lower commissions for drivers.
That said, Juno doesn’t plan to be a discounted app forever, Marco said, and it will be interesting to see if compa- nies can keep up with Uber once the price advantage disappears or is cut back.
Passengers can also expect Juno to introduce surge pricing in the near future, said Marco.
Juno wait times, which can sometimes be several minutes longer than Uber’s or Lyft’s, are “a byproduct of the fact we do not have surge,” he said, as drivers who work un-
der multiple badges take calls first from companies that use surge pricing.
There are now about 13,000 drivers who have signed with Juno, Marco said.
On July 20, Juno released 25 million restricted stock units to 9,000 qualified drivers. Eventually, 1 billion shares will go to drivers — equal to half of the company.
“We believe passengers will continue riding with us because our drivers are better, and they’re more motivated because we’re nicer to them,” Marco said.
In a statement, Uber said it is “always striving to make it the best earning opportunity in the industry,” noting it recently partnered with the Machinists Union and raised its minimum fare.