Digital platforms for mobility services: Analyzing the current market landscape and European regulatory efforts

Abstract

This paper analyses multimodal mobility platforms which enable the matching of supply and demand for transportation services, including new forms such as ride-hailing, ride-pooling, or vehicle sharing. Typically, such platforms appear as mobile applications (apps), sometimes evolving into “super apps” that even include non-transport services. This paper aims at answering the following research questions: (1) Which digital mobility platforms dominate the global market and how can they be characterized?; (2) What economic impacts can be expected for mobility companies from a possible EU regulation to facilitate platform-based bookings and multimodal travel (e.g., the EU Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) initiative)?; and (3) Which overarching recommendations can be derived for policymakers concerning such a possible regulation? To investigate these questions, we first identify and characterize the most important mobility platforms based on data from an analytics firm for the mobile app market. The characteristics considered include platform usage, the number of integrated mobility services, and the countries in which they are operated. We then analyse statements from stakeholders collected during a public consultation on the EU MDMS initiative to identify significant SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) for individual stakeholder groups in connection with such a possible future EU regulation. Based on this, we derive regulatory recommendations for policymakers.