Careem says Super App users up nine-fold since April

About 48 million users have registered for the platform that combines several different services

UAE-based Careem was sold to its US rival Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. Bloomberg

The number of people using more than one service on Careem’s Super App has grown about nine-fold since its launch in April, the Dubai-based technology company said.

The Super App, which has about 48 million registered users, combines different offers – such as ride hailing, food and grocery delivery, digital payments, bike sharing and intercity travel – on a single platform.

Careem, which released its report on this year’s trends yesterday, did not disclose the exact number of users but said UAE users made three transactions a week on average.

Since April, the height of coronavirus restrictions, the company said the movement of people through its car, hala taxi, intercity transport and bike-hire services was up 10-fold. The movement of goods such as food and grocery deliveries quadrupled while the movement of money through its recharging and credit-sending service doubled. More than 60 million transactions were made through its Careem Pay service, the company said.

“This year has challenged all of us ... however, it also provided us with the opportunity to expand our services to better meet the needs of our customers,” said Mudassir Sheikha, chief executive and co-founder of Careem.

“Whether it was through deliveries of daily essentials and food or helping people move around safely in the most restrictive of times, we are grateful to have simplified the lives of our customers, thanks to our dedicated captains at the front line.”

A Careem car in Baghdad where the company began offering ride hailing services in January 2018. Ahmad Al-Rubaye for The National

The Super App began to offer an inter-city service in August to transport customers between different emirates in the UAE. Since then, 6,448 customers have used the service, with the Abu Dhabi-Dubai route being the most popular.

In September, Careem told its office staff that they could work from home indefinitely as it looks to reduce rent and office expenses. Most of its staff across its 36 offices in 14 countries reported that their productivity had increased as they worked from home.

Reports collected on a monthly basis from March, when lockdown measures took hold around the world, showed that Careem's staff had developed stronger relationships with peers in other countries while working remotely.

“For 2021 ... Careem will continue to recruit talent across the region to further expand and provide amazing Careem offers and services for its customers,” the company said.

It said the Super App has 2 million registered captains delivering services and more than 1,200 agents answering about 30,000 customer service queries per day.

Careem was bought by US ride-hailing company Uber in a $3.1 billion deal that was concluded in January this year.