Careem hits milestone of 1 billion rides with Pakistan clocking in highest contribution

Customers on Careem’s ride-hailing platform have completed a total of 1 billion rides across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan since launching in 2012, the company announced on Tuesday. Pakistan topped the list of countries with the highest number of rides recorded (299 million), followed by Saudi Arabia (242 million) and Egypt (230 million).

The shortest single ride also took place in Pakistan – a 200 metre trip in Lahore.

Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and co-founder, said: “Reaching the incredible milestone of 1 billion rides is thanks to the hard work of our captains and colleagues as well as the trust that our customers have placed in us.

"The opportunity ahead is large and humbling - our region is full of untapped potential and there’s so much more we must do to simplify and improve life for people in the region.”

From seeing a startup go belly up, Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha has come a long way

The 1 billionth trip was completed in Qatar by Razak Uppatti from Kerala, India, who has been driving with Careem for four years and has completed over 10,500 trips on the platform, the company said.

To celebrate this milestone, Careem gifted Uppatti a trip to his home town.

“I have three children back home in Kerala, India, and I am so excited to see them soon,” said Uppatti.

Meanwhile, the 1 billionth passenger was Genera Tesoro from the Philippines who works in Doha. Genera takes more than 50 trips per month. Careem has gifted Genera ride-hailing trips for one year, with a cap of 10 rides per month at Qatari Riyal 30 each.

Careem revealed its first ride took place in the UAE in September 2012 and was booked manually before the first line of code was written from Pakistan a few months later.

It also said its 'captains' have driven over 9 billion kilometres across more than 80 cities over ten years. The longest single ride covered 1,113 kilometres, from Riyadh to Jazan in Saudi Arabia in 2020.

The percentage of Careem rides paid for digitally has grown from 31% in 2016 to 44% in 2022 while Careem has more than 50 million registered customers, and 2.5 million registered drivers who have collectively earned over $4 billion to date.

The highest number of trips recorded by a captain is 35,139 trips by a driver in Jordan while the highest number of rides booked by a customer is over 9,500 rides by a customer in Saudi Arabia.

Careem's statement added that it now offers "over a dozen services including ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, micro-mobility, payments, and partner services including home cleaning, car rental, event bookings, and on-demand laundry services”.

Last month, Uber, which bought Careem in 2019, said it was going to discontinue its ride-hailing services in five cities in Pakistan including Karachi and Islamabad, in a move that was likely to reduce market overlap between the US firm and Careem.