Rida: a "new" ride-hailing app with 280k installs in three months is actually an old player in new clothes
What it is A ride-hailing and motorbike-taxi app where passengers set their own price and drivers pay no commission. It operates in Nigeria, Kenya and DR Congo. It's Rida, which has been running since 2020, relaunched in July 2026 as a new passenger app.
Why it took off Uber pulled out of Nigeria in Sep 2, and local media listed Rida as a replacement. It also hired agencies to do street promotion in Lubumbashi and recruited local influencers to open the city. Add the older passenger app being taken down, which moved old users over (inferred).
DHow you could follow Don't build a second ride-hailing app. What you can borrow is the playbook: target the window when a giant leaves a market to get into replacement lists, turn local haggling habits into features, and outsource city launches to local agencies. If you really want this market, building dispatch and bookkeeping tools for local fleets is more realistic.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-07-16 · 11-07 installs 287,269
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Rida, a haggling ride-hailing app in Nigeria, got a new package name and added motorbike taxis. Amid two forces, Uber's exit from Nigeria and its city launch in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, it climbed to 287k installs in three months. The number is real, but the app wasn't built from zero. Below: where these 280k came from, how it competes with inDrive, and why small teams should only watch this one from the sidelines.
A 30k naira airport taxi ride
On 2026 Sep 2, Uber announced it was exiting Nigeria after 12 years (Reuters, BBC, 9-02), and Uganda too. The next day, Nigerian news site Legit.ng published "Who Gets Uber's Market," quoting a passenger named Chude on X: a ride from Lagos airport to the Radisson in Abuja cost 30k naira, while the same trip on inDrive was 6,000 naira. The piece pointed to a few likely winners: inDrive, where you can negotiate the fare; LagRide, backed by the Lagos State government; and a line saying another Nigerian ride-hailing app, Rida, could also benefit.
Two weeks later, on Sep 14, Rida employee Abel Longomba posted "Rida est officiellement à Lushi", meaning Rida officially arrived in Lubumbashi (Lushi is what locals call it). On Sep 30, a street-promotion agency in DR Congo called Beyond The Line DRC posted that they "ran Rida's official launch in Lubumbashi": setting the marketing strategy, shooting content, recruiting local influencers, and adding a large roadshow to "go directly to users".
This is the backdrop for the new Rida passenger app, com.ridataxi.rider, over these past months.
What it is
In one line: passengers set a price, drivers accept or counter, and passengers pick a driver. Drivers pay zero commission. The site's hero line reads "Your ride. Your price.", with "No surge, no surprises" underneath. The driver recruitment section has three points: 0% commission, pick your own rides, flexible hours.
This haggling model belongs to inDrive, not Rida. The only differences from inDrive are two: it doesn't take a cut from drivers, and it opens cities where inDrive and Yango haven't done much, using street promotion.
It's not a new product
This package went live on Play in 2026 Jul 16, and the iOS version followed on Jul 7. Looks like a brand-new App. Scroll back and it isn't:
- Rida entered Nigeria in 2020. TechCabal describes it as a company with Armenian roots. In 2022 the Lagos State government named Rida and inDriver, saying both were "operating without licenses" (Rest of World, 2022-05-27).
- In 2023, its Nigeria general manager Osi Oguah told interviewers it had over 1,000 signed drivers, thousands of rides a day, took 0 commission from drivers since launch, and was still unprofitable (Legit.ng, 2023-06-28). That same year fuel subsidies were removed and rides got more expensive, and TechCabal reported passengers shifting to Rida and inDrive, where they can haggle on price.
- Its original rider app was called "Rida — cheaper than taxi ride" (package com.ridetada), and there was also com.rida.rider. Both packages now won't open on Google Play; only old versions survive on APK download sites like APKPure.
- The driver app com.rida.driver went live 2022 years ago and now has 273k installs, 4,081 ratings, and 4.5 stars (Google Play, 11-06).
So the new package looks more like a rebrand-and-relaunch: the name changed from "cheaper than taxi ride" to "Taxi & Moto Rides", moto-taxis were added, and the old rider app was pulled. The new listing could catch a batch of old users the moment it went up. This is an inference: I found no record of when the old package came down or whether the app guided users to migrate.
Where the 287k installs came from
Start with the numbers. Google Play installs went from 10-29 to 250,495,11-06 to 287,269, adding 36,774 in a week. Play updates its counts in batches every few days, so the curve is stepped: one step jumped 10k (10-31), another 18k (11-03), and 11-05 and 11-06 each added about 4 thousand. There are no ratings on Play yet; on iOS, the Nigeria store has 0 ratings and the DR Congo store 3 (App Store, 11-06). A ride-hailing app with 280k installs and almost no ratings suggests many installs came from migration or paid campaigns rather than word of mouth. This sentence is an inference.
It's not prominent on charts: it appears only on Nigeria's free Maps & Navigation chart, where it has hovered between #104 and #126 from 10-29 to 11-06 without climbing. On the same chart inDrive is #2, Bolt #6, and the departed Uber still #25. I didn't get the DR Congo or Kenya Play charts this time, so "only charting in Nigeria" doesn't mean it only has users there.
Putting together what's visible, the new installs likely came from four places:
| Source | Evidence | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Old users migrating from the old package | The old rider app was pulled and the new one relaunched under a new name | Inferred |
| Riders left behind when Uber exited Nigeria | Legit.ng 9-03 listed Rida among the beneficiaries; BusinessDay 9-14 reported platforms handing out incentives to win riders | The timing lines up, but the share is unknown |
| Opening in Lubumbashi, DR Congo | An agency's LinkedIn post 9-30; the Facebook page 8-18 posted "Lubumbashi tume fika" (Swahili: we've arrived in Lubumbashi); the website defaults to the French Congo version | Confirmed in progress, volume not visible |
| Paid acquisition | The website's download button is an Adjust attribution link, and the campaign is named "CD" (Congo) | Attributed paid acquisition is confirmed, scale unknown |
The most telling part is the gap between supply and demand. Rider installs rose 37k in a week, while driver installs grew only 1,814 over the same period (Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06). Riders were pulled in by promotion; drivers didn't follow. A third-party "Uber alternatives in Nigeria" list describes it as "short on drivers at peak hours," which fits the numbers. This is the thing ride-hailing fears most: a rider opens the app, can't get a car, and never comes back.
0 commission: where the money comes from
No one knows. Neither the website nor the app store pages say what drivers or riders pay. The general manager said in 2023 that it wasn't profitable, and no numbers have been published since. 0 A zero commission is the best hook for recruiting drivers, especially now that Uber has pulled out: the driver union September has demanded that Bolt (which takes 20%) and inDrive cut their commission to under 10% (Techeconomy, 9-25). But how a no-commission platform stays alive is invisible from outside. Maybe the parent company is subsidizing it, maybe drivers will eventually pay a subscription fee. There's no evidence either way.
One more detail: the website was built with Yandex's site tools, its images are hosted on Yandex servers, and it uses Yandex's captcha. Yango, the leader in the Congolese market, is part of the Yandex group. I found no evidence of any link between the two, so no conclusion here.
Who it's competing with
| Competitors | Scale (Google Play, 11-06) | How it differs from Rida |
|---|---|---|
| inDrive | 389M installs, +1.67M in a week; #2 on Nigeria's maps chart | Also allows price bargaining, three orders of magnitude bigger, but takes a commission |
| Bolt | 179M installs; #6 on Nigeria's maps chart | Fixed pricing, takes 20% |
| Yango | 89.9M installs; mainstream in DR Congo | Fixed pricing; cars, moto-taxis and tuk-tuks all available; Rida's direct rival in DR Congo |
| LagRide | Scale not checked | Backed by the Lagos State government; operates only in Lagos |
| Shuttlers / FlexxyDrive / Lift | 183k / 77k / 52k installs | A local Nigerian platform doing commuter shuttles or regular taxi rides |
Bargaining ride-hailing isn't an empty field: inDrive's weekly gains are more than five times Rida's total installs. Rida can survive by establishing itself in second-tier cities the giants aren't prioritizing, not because its product beats theirs.
If it were you
D: Worth knowing about, not worth copying. Rida's volume comes from things a small team can't get: six years of accumulated drivers and old users, a one-time window from Uber's exit, and a budget to hire agencies for on-the-ground launches.
Who it suits: local teams already running offline operations in markets like Nigeria, DR Congo and Kenya, with driver or motorcycle-taxi fleets on hand. For them, the 0 commission-negotiation app is a ready-made, proven play.
Who it doesn't suit: indie developers and small teams hoping one app will bring volume. Ride-hailing means building both sides from zero: drivers, licenses (Rida itself was flagged for "operating without a license"), and people on the ground in every city. The code is the least valuable part.
What you can borrow:
- In the first weeks after a giant exits a market, local media publishes "alternatives" lists, and anyone on those lists gets free attention. This works for any category: watch for exit announcements from big platforms.
- Build existing offline habits straight into the product. In cities where people haggle on the street, "name your price" is an easier sell than teaching users to accept fixed pricing.
- You don't have to send your own people to open a new city. Rida handed strategy, influencers, and roadshows in Lubumbashi to a local agency as a package.
If you must follow: don't build a second ride-hailing app. A more realistic move is back-office tools for local fleets and moto-taxi operators (dispatch, bookkeeping, driver management), or prepare localized versions ahead of the next giant's exit.
How early you need to be: Uber has been out of Nigeria for over two months, the alternatives lists are already written, and this window has largely closed.
What would mean you read it wrong:
- If driver-side installs climb alongside rider-side installs (say, over 10k a week), that means 0's commission is actually pulling in supply, and it has a real shot at a two-sided flywheel.
- If Rida discloses revenue or funding, or someone runs the same playbook from scratch in another African city, it would show the model doesn't depend on a legacy base and small teams can compete too.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one inDrive Android 2015 (Nigeria 2019) Play: 389M installs, +1.67M in 7 days; #2 on Nigeria's maps chart Same bargaining model, far bigger scale but they take a commission; Rida only wins on 0 commission and localization in second-tier cities Bolt Android 2013 179M installs, #6 on the Nigeria map chart Fixed pricing, 20% commission Uber Android 2010 1.18B installs; 2026-09-02 exited Nigeria Fixed pricing; its exit is Rida's opening Yango Android 2018 89.9M installs, mainstream in DR Congo Fixed pricing; cars, moto-taxis and tuk-tuks all available; Rida's main rival in DR Congo LagRide Android About 2024 Not checked Backed by the Lagos State government; operates only in Lagos Shuttlers / FlexxyDrive / Lift Android — 183k / 77k / 52k installs A local Nigerian platform doing shuttles or regular taxi rides, with no bargaining - Where users come from
- Verified Platform event (Uber exits Nigeria): Reuters / BBC 2026-09-02; Legit.ng 2026-09-03 lists Rida as a likely beneficiary
- Verified On-the-ground launch + local influencers (Lubumbashi, DR Congo): agency Beyond The Line DRC 2026-09-30 said on LinkedIn it ran the marketing strategy, influencer content, and roadshows; Facebook Rida RDC 2026-08-18 posted "Lubumbashi tume fika"
- Inferred Attributed paid acquisition: the website's download button is an Adjust link (ridataxi.go.link, campaign=CD); a re-engagement card lists an AppLovin link; spend volume not findable
- Inferred Old-user migration (old packages com.ridetada / com.rida.rider pulled): the old packages show Not Found on Play, several historical versions remain on APKPure, and the new listing came with an existing user base; the migration process is unverified
- Verified Owned social + local media alternatives lists: IG @rida_nigeria 9.4K, @rida.rdc about 1.2K; SEO alternatives lists such as Waypoint include it
Rida Taxi & Moto Rides (com.ridataxi.rider): why it's taking off
Data as of: 2026-11-06. Figures in the database come from the googleplay library (agent-im server, since 2026-10-29); web evidence is linked under each point.
Bottom line
This isn't a new product. Rida is an old, small player that has been running "rider names the price + driver pays 0 commission" in Nigeria since 2020 (an Armenian-backed company, Rida LLC). In 2026, in July, it swapped in a new rider package name and relaunched as "Taxi & Moto". The 287k installs on this new package most likely come from three sources: old users migrating, demand left by Uber's exit from Nigeria in Sep 2, and an on-the-ground launch in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, in September. The re-engagement card calls it "287k in 3 months from scratch", which overstates how well it cold-started.
1. What the data says
- Passenger app com.ridataxi.rider: Play launch date 2026-07-16; iOS version (id 6761409920, seller Rida LLC) launched 2026-07-07. Install count 10-29 is 250,495,11-06 as of 287,269,7 days: +36,774. Play updates its counts in batches every few days; 10-31 +10k, 11-03 +18k, 11-05 and 11-06 each +4k (googleplay app_day). Play has no rating yet. The iOS Nigeria store has 0 ratings, and the DR Congo store only 3 (iTunes lookup, 2026-11-06).
- Charts: It only appears on the Nigeria Maps & Navigation Top Free chart, bouncing between #104 and #126 with no upward trend (googleplay chart_rank 10-29~11-06). On the same chart, inDrive is #2, Bolt #6, Uber #25 (Uber exited in September but the app is still listed), local player Shuttlers #24, FlexxyDrive #26, Lift #33. In Nigeria, its volume sits behind the second tier.
- Driver app com.rida.driver: 2022-08-1.27M installs since launch, 4,081 ratings, 4.5 stars. Only +1,814 in 7 days (Google Play). The rider app added 37k in a week while the driver app barely moved: growth is coming from the demand side. That fits paid acquisition and city launches, and it matches a third-party review saying driver supply is thin at peak hours (Waypoint ranking).
- Blind spot in our data: our Play charts only cover Nigeria and South Africa, so the DR Congo and Kenya charts are invisible to us. "Charted in only 1 countries" does not mean it only has traction in 1 countries.
2. Who it is: an old product in a new skin
- Rida was founded in Nigeria in 2020, but only really took off in 2022. MD Osi Oguah said in 2023 that it had 1,000 signed-up drivers and thousands of rides a day, and that since launch it has charged drivers a 0 commission and is still not profitable (Legit.ng 2023-06-28). TechCabal describes it as "Armenia-based Rida", says it entered Nigeria in 2020, and reports that after the fuel subsidy was removed in 2023, riders turned to Rida and inDrive, where they can negotiate fares (TechCabal 2023-07-03). In 2022 the Lagos state government named inDriver and Rida as operating without licenses (Rest of World 2022-05-27). They have reportedly since obtained a Lagos license (per a roundup by citizendailypost, unverified against the original).
- Cities covered: Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Benin City in Nigeria (Instagram @rida_nigeria, 9.4K followers); Mombasa in Kenya (@rida.kenya, Facebook); and Lubumbashi in DR Congo, opened in 2026 (@rida.rdc, about 1.2K followers; on its Facebook page, 2026-08-18 posted "Lubumbashi tume fika", Swahili for "we have arrived in Lubumbashi").
- Old passenger app: "Rida — cheaper than taxi ride" (package com.ridetada, with several versions from 1.41 to 2.x on APKPure, 3.16 etc.), plus com.rida.rider (Softonic lists the developer as Helix Consulting LLC, last updated 2025-05-28). Both packages now show Not Found on Play. A Medium case study says the old app had "4.7 stars and 26k reviews" (date unknown). Inference: in 2026 (July) it switched to the new package com.ridataxi.rider and delisted the old one. Part of the new package's initial installs likely came from old users forced to migrate. Exactly when the old package was pulled, and whether users were guided across, is not verified.
- The new passenger app added "Moto" (motorbike taxis), and its name changed from "cheaper than taxi" to "Taxi & Moto Rides." The website rida.app defaults to fr_cd (French, DR Congo), the landing page uses Yandex's site builder with images hosted on avatars.mds.yandex.net, and there is Yandex SmartCaptcha. Download links run through Adjust (ridataxi.go.link, adj_campaign=CD). This suggests the current push is focused on DR Congo, with attributed acquisition.
3. Why users are showing up now
- Uber 2026-09-02 exits Nigeria (and Uganda) (Reuters, BBC, Channels TV, all 2026-09-02). A Legit.ng piece from Sep 3 names Rida as a beneficiary (others were inDrive and LagRide). Same period: "Seven platforms fight for Uber riders and drivers" (The Nation, 2026-09-03, headline only) and "Platforms use subsidies to pull in riders" (BusinessDay, 2026-09-14).
- Driver anger over commission: after Uber left, the drivers' union AUATON demanded that Bolt (20% commission) and inDrive cut commissions to under 10% (Techeconomy 2026-09-25). Rida has consistently taken 0% and is well placed to catch drivers unhappy with high cuts. However, the driver app rose only 1.8k in 7 days, and we see no large-scale migration yet.
- DR Congo: Lubumbashi city launch: local agency Beyond The Line DRC posted on LinkedIn (2026-09-30) that they "led the official launch of Rida in Lubumbashi," covering marketing strategy, local influencer content and influence campaigns, and large street roadshows. Employee Abel Longomba posted "Rida est officiellement à Lushi" on Sep 14. Lubumbashi's main existing competitor is Yango. Many traditional curbside taxis and motorbikes require haggling, and the pitch "set your own price, no endless roadside bargaining" (Instagram ad copy) fits local habits well.
4. Competitors
| Name | Channel | Launched | Scale | How Rida differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| inDrive | Android/iOS | 2015 (entered Nigeria 2019) | Play 389M installs, +1.67M in 7 days; Nigeria Maps chart #2 | Also a negotiable-fare model, but three orders of magnitude larger, and it takes commission (drivers are complaining). Rida's differences are only its 0 commission and localization |
| Bolt | Android/iOS | 2013 | 179M installs; #6 on Nigeria's maps chart | Fixed pricing, 20% commission |
| Uber | Android/iOS | 2010 | 1.18B installs; 2026-09-02 exited Nigeria | Left a gap in Nigeria after exit |
| Yango (Yandex family) | Android/iOS | 2018 | 89.9M installs; mainstream in DR Congo | Set pricing; cars, motorbikes and tuk-tuks all covered; Rida's main rival in DR Congo |
| LagRide | Android/iOS | Around 2024 | Backed by the Lagos State government; scale not checked | Government-backed, Lagos only |
| Shuttlers / FlexxyDrive / Lift | Android | — | 183k / 77k / 52k installs | Local Nigerian small players (commuter shuttles or regular taxi booking) |
| keke rida | iOS | 2026-02 | 6 ratings | Nigerian tuk-tuk booking app with a similar name; not the same company |
| Waypoint | Web / app | 2026 | Self-described Nigerian Uber alternative (SEO pages) | Captures Uber-alternative traffic through SEO articles |
Takeaway: negotiable-fare ride-hailing is not new, and inDrive is the clear leader. Rida's real differentiators are three: 0 commission, lightness (old version about 11MB), and city launches in second-tier cities where inDrive and Yango have not focused, driven by street promotion.
5. Growth tactics (evidence)
- City launch with street promotion + local influencers: confirmed, see the LinkedIn agency post above.
- Attributed acquisition: the website download button is an Adjust link with the campaign set to CD. Retention cards separately note an AppLovin acquisition link (not re-checked this time). Spend levels cannot be found (our Meta ad library only tracks a list of named products, and the TikTok ad library only covers European campaigns).
- Owned social: @rida_nigeria (IG 9.4K, X, Facebook), @rida.kenya, @rida.rdc (IG about 1.2K). All small.
- Event windfall: after Uber's exit, local media's "alternatives" lists included it (Legit.ng, Waypoint and others).
- Old-user migration: inferred. The old package has been delisted, and the new one had a base of users on launch, not verified.
- No X, Hacker News or Reddit discussion found (an x-radar search for "Rida" returned no relevant results), and no TikTok account data was found.
6. Visibility
The new package itself has barely been covered. The Rida brand got some local Nigerian tech press (more in 2022–2023, and in 2026 only mentioned in passing in articles about Uber's exit). Revenue has never been disclosed, and the MD said in 2023 that it was "not yet profitable." English tech circles and X have no discussion. Classification: circulating in small circles (Nigeria and Congo locally only).
7. Why it took off (ranked)
- Uber's exit from Nigeria spilled demand and media attention onto negotiable-fare, low-price platforms.
- The new package added motorbikes, and in DR Congo's Lubumbashi, an agency handled street promotion and influencers to launch the city. The DR Congo increase is invisible in our charts, but it likely accounts for most of the new installs.
- Migration of the old app's users means the new package did not start from zero (inferred).
- 0 commission is a driver-recruitment hook, but driver growth has been flat, so there is no "two-sided flywheel" yet.
8. What to borrow
- In the window opened by a giant's withdrawal (Uber leaving Nigeria and Uganda), an existing product, localized copy and an outsourced street-promotion agency make city launches cheap.
- In emerging markets, productizing the habit of roadside haggling (you name your price, the driver counters) is easier to accept than system pricing.
- Using 0 commission to attract supply is a low-barrier move that works for small platforms, but how it makes money long term (subscriptions?) is unclear, so be cautious.
9. Uncertain
- Of the new package's 287k installs, how many came from migration, Nigeria, DR Congo and Kenya respectively is unknown.
- How it makes money at a 0% commission is unknown (no evidence of a driver subscription fee was found).
- Corporate entity: Rida LLC has Armenian roots (TechCabal). The website uses Yandex infrastructure. Whether it is linked to Yango or other platforms is not verified, so don't conclude anything.
- Acquisition scale and the AppLovin campaign (from the retention card) were not re-checked.
Sources
- googleplay library: app_profile / app_day / chart_rank (2026-10-29~11-06)
- iTunes lookup / search (id 6761409920, 1626478488), 2026-11-06
- rida.app/fr_cd/, rida.app/en_cd/
- play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ridataxi.rider, …?id=com.rida.driver
- Reuters 2026-09-02 www.reuters.com/world/africa/uber-exit-nigeria-after-12-year… ;BBC www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86xpv8l9y9o
- Legit.ng 2026-09-03 www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1728679-uber-leaves…
- Techeconomy 2026-09-25 techeconomy.ng/nigerian-e-hailing-drivers-bolt-indrive-commi…
- BusinessDay 2026-09-14 businessday.ng/transport/article/e-hailing-platforms-woo-pas…
- LinkedIn Beyond The Line DRC 2026-09-30 fr.linkedin.com/posts/beyond-the-line-drc_mission-accomplie-…
- Facebook Rida RDC www.facebook.com/p/Rida-RDC-61592315764667/; Instagram www.instagram.com/rida.rdc/, www.instagram.com/rida_nigeria/
- Legit.ng 2023-06-28 www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1541606-making-prof…
- TechCabal 2023-07-03 techcabal.com/2023/07/03/rida-indrive-competition/
- Rest of World 2022-05-27 restofworld.org/2022/lagos-government-indriver-and-rida/
- Waypoint ng.waypointride.com/uber-alternative-nigeria.html
- APKPure com.ridetada m.apkpure.com/rida-%E2%80%94-cheaper-than-taxi-ride/com.ride… ;Softonic rida-taxi.en.softonic.com/android