Easy Taxi partners WeChat to book a cab via messaging app

Taxi booking app launched last December, Easy Taxi, allows users to book a cab from any of the seven taxi operators here. And from yesterday, WeChat users in the island simply need to follow Easy Taxi's official WeChat account (EasyTaxiSGP) to book a cab.

"The integration of Easy Taxi into WeChat is a logical decision in this age of mobile Internet and given how most social interactions are now conducted through smartphones," Jianggan Li, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Easy Taxi Singapore, told The Business Times.

The tie-up marks WeChat's first taxi partnership outside China, said Poshu Yeung, a Vice-President at Tencent, the Chinese Internet company behind WeChat. Mr. Poshu believes Singapore is an ideal launchpad for Asia, thanks to its sophisticated market and high usage of taxis and smartphones - as 75 percent of taxi drivers here use smartphones.

To launch the partnership, Easy Taxi is offering users a $5 discount on cab fares while cabbies can earn and additional dollar for every booking made through WeChat. The promotion will run until the end of July.

While Easy Taxi declined to reveal user figures, it believes it expects to see some 30 percent growth in taxi bookings following the partnership with WeChat. Furthermore, users will soon be able to enjoy cashless payment features, and pay for their cab fares via the WeChat app - which already has a user's credit or debit card information stored online.

Mr. Li claims this is only the first step for Easy Taxi, whose long-term goal is to create a one-stop lifestyle platform for users. The start-up is now in talks with fellow Rocket Internet backed ventures including food delivery app FoodPanda, online marketplace Lazada and online clothing store Zalora, to explore tie-up opportunities so as to enable a full suite of lifestyle services through WeChat.