Tap30 Enters Mashhad

One of the most popular low-cost ride hailing apps in Iran, Tap30, has offering services in the northeastern shrine city of Mashhad, capital of Khorasan Razavi Province, following a successful performance in Tehran.

Mashhad is Iran’s holiest city and home to the mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the eight imam of Shiite Muslims. An estimated 25 million pilgrims from in and outside the country visit the shrine every year.

Tap30 and Snapp, along with newer competitors Carpino, leverage smartphone apps as a way to gain customers. Like famous ride-hailing app Uber, the firms do not employ drivers directly and instead use freelancers.  

Tap30 has been working hard to gain traction against its main rival Snapp by offering prices nearly 40% less than its main competitor in some instances.

The service is also using a ‘robot’ artificial intelligence service on popular messenger application Telegram as an alternative means of hailing a cab.

Telegram is already the most popular messaging/social media application in Iran with over 45 million users. Unlike Snapp, however, the service does not offer an English language version of the app, making it less likely that foreigners in Tehran would use it.

According to online statistics services, Tap30.ir domain received around 118,000 hits in the previous month, while Snapp’s share was  200,000.