Uber competitor Gett to launch corporate service in New York within weeks as company shifts global marketing budget to the city
Uber's Massive European Competitor Gett Shifts Focus To New York — As Uber doubles down on its investment in Europe and Southeast Asia, Gett is reinvesting its international profits into New York.
Context & Ripple Effects
In early 2015, Gett chose an unusual battleground: while Uber pushed into Europe and Southeast Asia, Gett reversed the flow, shifting its global marketing budget to New York and reinvesting international profits there to launch a corporate service within weeks. That bet on B2B rides became the company's spine — it later absorbed New York-based rival Juno in a $200M acquisition as Uber's competitors consolidated, and drew a $300M strategic investment from VW tied to a ride-sharing partnership.
First-order effects
- Uber now faces a funded challenger attacking its most valuable US market at its highest-margin segment, corporate accounts, rather than competing head-on for consumer riders.
- Gett's New York bet concentrates its spend where corporate contracts compound, trading global brand breadth for density in one city.
Second-order effects
- Weaker local players like Juno become consolidation targets rather than independents, accelerating the pattern of Uber's rivals merging to survive.
- An automaker's capital enters the fight: VW's backing gives Gett balance-sheet depth that pure ride-hailing startups lack, raising the cost of competing on price.
Third-order effects
- The endgame arrives as consolidation, not IPO: after later raises at a $1.5B valuation and a stated path toward going public, Lyft ultimately agreed to buy Gett as its third acquisition in a year — the corporate-focused challenger exiting by sale, with the surviving structure being fewer, larger platforms dividing markets geographically.
The trend: Ride-hailing is consolidating from many regional challengers into a handful of platform owners, with corporate/B2B service as the durable asset that determines who gets acquired rather than who goes public.