BlaBlaCar offers to acquire Busfor to expand bus service through Russia

BlaBlaCar, the world’s leading long-distance carpooling platform, announced that it has offered to acquire Busfor, Russia and Ukraine’s largest online bus ticketing platform.

Just last year, BlaBlaCar expanded beyond car sharing to incorporate bus service, aiming to increase its hold on road mobility and satisfy more passengers. With 7,000 bus carriers, Busfor will cement BlaBlaCar’s position as the leading road mobility provider in the region, where it already counts over 25 million members.

The region is just starting to shift to booking buses online; currently, online booking represents only 10% of the region’s multi-billion bus market. BlaBlaCar hopes to both centralize the fragmented bus market and also convert more local travelers to online reservations.

Nicolas Brusson, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar said: “We are thrilled to join forces with a leading regional player that has strong operating results and state-of-the-art technology. By growing a multimodal bus and carpooling offer together and by accelerating the transition from offline to online travel booking in Russia and the CEE region, we can better serve bus carriers and passengers, and improve long-distance mobility across the region.”

This is different from the company’s strategy in western Europe, where it acquired Ouibus in 2018. It is now introducing its own branded bus service, BlaBlaBus, in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.