Dubai-headquartered Careem that has been recently acquired by Uber today has announced that it is exiting Turkey. The announcement comes just two days after Careem announced its decision to leave Oman. Careem will be shutting down its service in Turkey from January 31 (2020) onwards, the company announced in an email sent to its customers today.
“We are regret to announce that due to lack of regulatory factors that provide a healthy environment for captains, the company, and our customers, we have deiced to stop our services in Turkey from January 31,” said the email in Turkish language.
Careem’s co-founder and CEO confirmed the decision in an interview with The National, saying that the regulatory environments in [Oman & Turkey] are not conducive to ensure their success in those countries.
He also said that there’s a lot more focus on profitability, “There will be parts of Careem that will grow and there will be parts of Careem that will shrink.”
According to its website, Careem has been operating in three cities of Turkey: Istanbul, Bursa, and Adana.
Like Oman, Careem was working only with the regular taxis in Turkey (at least in Istanbul) and the taxi drivers there were not happy with the Uber-Careem merger. The company used to offer regular cars too at the initial stage in Istanbul but had to abandon the service just a year after its launch as its captains and the company itself were hit with different government fines.
Glovo, the European on-demand delivery startup has also announced its exit from the Turkish market (along with Egypt and two other markets) earlier this week.
With Turkey gone (in a few days), Careem’s service will be available in 13 markets, down from 16 when Uber-Careem deal was announced.
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