Europe’s Ride-Hailing Service, Beat, to Launch in Mexico City

European ride-hailing app Beat is preparing to launch operations in Mexico City, vowing to give its rivals a run for their money.

“We are entering Mexico City at a time when there’s already big global players and other local upstarts, but we are confident that we will be able to keep pace and compete,” the company stated in a blogpost.

The Greece-based firm – which has already seen success in other Latin American cities including Lima (Peru), Santiago (Chile), and Bogota (Colombia) –  is currently owned by German auto giant Daimler, maker of Mercedes Benz cars.

Beat is reportedly offering exorbitant salary to Mexican drivers, with plans to sign up 10 times more drivers than the other LatAm cities it is operating.

Although Mexico city seems to be overcrowded with the likes of Uber and Chinese ride-hailing app Didi, Beat says there is room to grow. “We’ve beaten bigger players before and we intend to do it again,” said Nikos Drandakis, founder and CEO of Beat.

Beat launched operations in Peru the same year as Uber, yet is today controlling a larger share of the taxi services market there.

Home to more than 21 million people, Mexico City is believed to be congested. That is perhaps another reason why there is so much demand for taxi services.

The European company claims it experimented with Mexico City for a brief period of time about five years ago, but backed off quickly as it found the market “challenging”. “We didn’t have the resources back then to succeed,” Drandakis added.

The arrival of Beat will no doubt heat up competition, pushing down the taxi fares dramatically for Mexican passengers.