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The Ride-Hailing App Wars: Tactics Used in the Uber vs. Lyft vs. Gett Fight

By Nicole Levy | November 10, 2015 7:49am
 Uber, Lyft and Gett are three competitors in the ride-hailing app wars.
Uber, Lyft and Gett are three competitors in the ride-hailing app wars.
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Uber/Lyft/Gett

The battle of the ride-hailing apps rages on.

If you regret all those times you hailed an Uber or a Lyft on your phone when demand was high (i.e. every drunken Saturday night), you can now recoup all the extra money you spent with their rival Gett.

Gett, an app that lets riders book black-car rides for a flat fee, is offering Uber and Lyft users free ride credits matching the money they've paid in surge fees in New York City, up to a total of $100.

The "Surge Sucks" program rounds up users' cumulative surge fees to the nearest $5 increment.  

The cherry on top: the rider with the highest surge-fee submission will win a $1,000 cash prize. 

Competition in the mobile-hired car service industry has gotten particularly fierce since July, when the de Blasio administration dropped legislation to cap the growth of companies like Uber.

With the daunting task of challenging the heavyweight Uber, valued at $51 billion, Gett has no option but to make dramatic gestures.

Last year, the Tel Aviv-based startup behind the app, GetTaxi, introduced a $10 flat-fee rate for rides in Manhattan.

We've rounded up some of the showy maneuvers that Uber, Lyft and Gett have made in their battle for New York riders below.

UBER:

► Last fall, Uber partnered with the digital music service Spotify, allowing riders to access their music playlists within the Uber app and play them on car speakers.

► Not to be outdone by Gett, Uber cut the prices of its carpool service, UberPOOL, in July to charge rates capped at $10 for rides starting and ending in Manhattan below 96th Street. 

► In September, Uber rolled out a service called UberEVENTS, giving party planners the ability to schedule and pay for guests' rides in advance. Lyft unofficially offers a comparable service for employers who need "safe, reliable transportation for all company parties and conferences."

► During the World Series, Uber teamed up with event ticket search engine SeatGeek to present one lucky, lottery-winning New Yorker a Mets signed jersey, credits toward a Game Three-ticket purchase on SeatGeek.com, and two rides of up to $50 each.

LYFT:

► The San-Francisco based car-hailing start-up that launched in New York last summer paired up with Starbucks in an arrangement that gave Lyft users the opportunity to earn points toward coffee and food with every trip they took. Riders would collect their perks through Starbucks' loyalty program.

► This summer, Lyft announced a promotion called "Lyft Line" in Manhattan and Brooklyn after Uber cut the price of UberPOOL. Rides within the zones of Manhattan south of 97th street and of western Brooklyn cost a mere $5. 

GETT: 

Concerned that its $10 flat-fee for Manhattan trips weren't compelling enough, the company cut its fares by 25 percent in March.

► The company took a big swing at its competitors in August when it launched its first ad campaign in New York City with slogans like "The competition, who we shall not name, is uber ripping you off" and "The only time we surge is never o'clock."