How has the company been able to cope with the different challenges in

managing its international business activities?

Company has been able to cope up with the different challenges because of the following:

A highly available platform with agility constraints : With sites in 19 countries, mostly in
Europe, but also in Russia, Mexico and now India, BlaBlaCar succeeded in raising 200
million dollars in September 2015. Francis Nappez, co-founder and technical director of
BlaBlaCar told us about the technical infrastructures behind this incredibly successful
service. We are currently on the third version of the BlaBlaCar technical platform. The first
version, from 2008, was a very basic prototype he explained. From 2008 to 2013, we
worked very hard to lay down a foundation for the future. Since 2014, weve been operating
on the third version of the platform.

The technical platform was built with several goals in mind. First, the site needed to
accommodate the increasing number of visitors. Over a million single users used the service
every day, either via the Web or mobile version. But the platform also needed to be able to
evolve quickly. Today, our service is available in 19 countries, each one faced with different
challenges, Francis Nappez said. Our product must be able to adapt to the country where it
is being used and have features that appear per the region and depending on the maturity of
its marketplace. We must have the capacity to deliver features for all the countries at once, a
group of countries or one single country.

Agile methods and continuous integration:

With agile methods and a continuous integration design, BlaBlaCar is structured to maintain
this flexibility even though the number of visitors has greatly increased. Francis Nappez gave
us the keys to BlaBlaCars success.

With a strong international presence, BlaBlaCar is supported by a network of 6 data centres

on 3 continents. They are in Singapore, Miami, London and Paris. The BlaBlaCar production
platform is unique in that it combines traditional servers with virtual servers located on a
private cloud and public cloud: a hybrid platform that currently includes 300 physical servers
and 150 virtual machines (on the private cloud).
A private cloud combined with Amazon Web Services:

BlaBlaCar uses services of the Amazon Web Services public cloud, among others, for
storage. It wouldnt be worth it to build our own storage infrastructure, Nappez said.
Amazon does a very good job already, so we use S3 to store member photos, for example. In
parallel, we use EC2 for batch processing of large volumes of data. Less than 10 instances of
EC2 run permanently on Amazon Web Services as the processing power of the public cloud
is used mainly for occasional needs.

Predictable load increases:

Moving toward a 100% cloud-based architecture, like Netflix has done, is a question the
technical director is still considering. First, theres the question of internal skills and team
experience. When we chose this hybrid architecture, it was because we had the skills, he
said. At BlaBlaCar, I think we master the cost and performance of our servers fairly well -
whether were talking about bare metal servers or virtual ones. Our nominal traffic is not
really seasonal and it is fairly easy to project over a 6-month period. Scaling up the internal
BlaBlaCar platform remains predictable and manageable for the startup. The peaks in traffic,
about 20 to 25% during certain times of year, can be anticipated by acquiring additional
server resources and bandwidth. Francis Nappez is already preparing the platform to
anticipate Christmastime activity increases.

Automated deployment of virtual machines by roles:

With Foreman and Chef, BlaBlaCar could completely automate deployment of machines by
roles, whether on hardware servers, virtual servers (on VMware) or instances of Amazon Web
Services. Chef is a repository, but also a way of working, the director stated. Everyone
knows very precisely what is on each machine. Everything is described in the scripts. The
automated process is readable, transparent and everything is traceable. For an infrastructure
team that now has fifteen members, its very useful to have this common, solid code base that
can be used to manage all the machines.

With his team of architects, Nappez also consolidates the platform. What we want to do now
is automate the installation of entire racks. Our growth is making it so that we need to deploy
entire racks of servers. The objective? No longer must travel on site to launch a new rack in
production. This service is purchased from a local service provider who physically installs the
rack in the data center. Then, the idea is that all server configurations and installations can be
managed remotely, in an automated manner. Once the rack is connected to the network, we
want to be able to deploy all the servers per their roles. To achieve this, we are currently
adding Collins to pause all the new servers, Nappez explained. CoreOS to support
containers.

Elastic Search engine under the hood:

In terms of databases, most BlaBlaCars data is stored on the Maria DB relational DBMS.
Currently, the BlaBlaCar service is based on 3 Maria DB clusters. However, various systems
are implemented to relieve the relational database and provide other data processing
possibilities.

A Big Data platform on Verticas Hadoop:

In addition to the architects on the one hand and the developers on the other, BlaBlaCar relies
on a third, data-oriented team. Their role is to provide raw data or prepared reports to other
teams, be it to present statistics on the community or press, or to improve the efficiency of
marketing campaigns. We rely on Verticas Hadoop stack for the processing part and on
Tableau Software for analysis and report creation. We dont really have any true Data
Scientists, he revealed. But rather what I call Data Engineers who provide data, per our
computing capacities, to the marketing and communication teams. A Hadoop cluster
operates continuously to collect all logs issued by the production servers. The largest
calculation batches are launched on Amazon Web Services.
Motivation for entry:

Blablacar is a French start-up who recently earned a USD 100 Million in funding to expand
beyond Europe. One of the countries that the company is targeting is India. India is a large
market and has a huge number of cars on its roads. Blablacar is a company that allows for
car-pooled rides over long distances (100 Kms to 500 Kms). Let us say I am driving down
from Bangalore to Mangalore alone, I could put out an invite asking others who might like to
join me at a cost. I get to subsidise my ride and those who are looking to travel, would be able
to hitch a ride. The ride might cost as much as the bus but would be more comfortable and
faster.

The idea seems very slick at the outset but deploying it in India is nevertheless going to be
fraught with challenges and the need to overcome certain fundamental issues.

It is easy to assume that a company of this nature would find a huge market in India, since
India had about 21 Million cars on road as on 31st March 2012. We can easily add another 12
-15% to arrive at the current figure. With so many cars, there are bound to be people who are
not driving their vehicles filled. Blablacars offers an interesting way to monetise these empty
seats while at the same time doing a little, in terms of helping the environment and reducing
fuel burn.

Yes. But they are not going to have it easy in India.

In India, cars represent a status symbol. They are not just a means of transportation, because
the best means of transportation for Indian roads are the two-wheeler, given the congestion
and poor state of the roads; not to mention the huge gap in terms of mileage. Indians do not
like to share their cars, they buy it to show off and that they do by waiting for hours at the
traffic lights. I know several families who have cars but use a two-wheeler for most of their
moving about. This has been part of the reason intra-city car-pooling has not taken off in any
meaningful manner in India.

India is not a country of highway loving people. Highways are unsafe and it is assumed that
you need training (which only taxi drivers have) to be able to drive on the highway. Yes, we
might travel on the highway occasionally, but we wont put our own cars on the highway and
much less drive them there. Highways are fundamentally badly built (barring a few
segments/routes) and considered rather unsafe. Unlike in Europe not a lot of people take to
the roads during vacations, and even if they do, they hire a cab. Most of them prefer bus and
train.

Watch this Canadian driver get a load of Indian road.

There are certain segments which tend to travel by road. But the only reason for doing that is
for flexibility. When you travel by road by yourself, you get to stop where you like, take the
trip at your pace, fast/slow as you may like and the trip can be more impromptu. Most
importantly, you need not follow somebody elses time table.

There are four segments of people who take to the highway:

1. Business people who want the flexibility.

2. Students who do it for the thrill of a road trip. (18 to 25 years of age)
3. Vacationers who are used to driving on road. (Very small segment)
4. People who work in a city very close to their native place. (Bangalore to Chitradurga
over the weekend)

When you look at it like this, the market shrinks very rapidly.

It not all bad.

If Blablacar must successfully enter India, it must do it very strategically with focus on very
targeted segments instead of going to the entire market. You would start by making a list of
highways that are most well suited for drives. Highways which have some of the best roads in
India and get frequented often, such as Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Bangalore-Chennai,
Mumbai-Goa, etc. These highways are a pleasure to drive and increasing numbers of people
are beginning to use these roads. Focusing on these markets help define the segment that you
most wish to cater to and increases the possibility of closing greater number of transaction.

Like buses, in India there are many taxis which serve a certain route. You would mostly find
these taxis parked near Interstate bus terminals (ISBTs). When I used to study in Agra, I
would often take these taxis, which were often Tata Sumos which would load up 9 others and
drive from Delhi to Agra. They were invariably quicker than the buses would not stop as
often and cost slightly more than the bus. This segment is completely disorganised, it would
take someone with a keen eye and with experience to even spot these guys outside bus stops.
Blablacars can do for them; what Redbus could do for bus operators.
Over the years, roads have been improving in India and that will continue and probably
convince more Indians to take to the roads. At such a time, Blablacar might be well poised to
take advantage of the growing market.

How has the Industry evolved in the last 10 years both globally and in the
countries where the firm is operating?

The increasing competition is helping- with new players entering the Indian market, it is
assisting the category to get the long due attention. The industry which moves travellers
across India is moving at a fast pace with new technologies, new business models, demanding
customers, committed service providers are all helping the industry to consolidate amongst
organized players and build Indian brands which can expand beyond the borders of India.

The car rental market in India is booming with the creation of new opportunities as several
international and national companies are entering the market in major cities. These companies
are offering various services to travellers, be it a chauffeur driven car, a special pick up
service, corporate services and much more. The Indian taxi market is pegged at USD 9 billion
(Rs 54,000 crore), of which less than 10% is organized. The cab business has emerged as one
of the fastest growing businesses in the Indian transportation sector. In the past, passengers at
airports, railway stations and bus terminals or those wanting transport at odd hours of the day
had to depend on unreliable public taxis, often having to pay much more than the actual rates.
The next decade will witness about 500,000 taxis being replaced and another 500,000 new
taxis getting inducted in major cities.

The Indian Car rental business is growing rapidly at a (CAGR) of around 12% and is
expected to be worth around USD 15 billion within next 5 years with the organized sector
having almost 50% of this market. The organized sector differentiates itself from the
unorganized sector in terms of its service parameters such as quality of service, reliability,
trained drivers, larger fleet size, monitored prices, etc. The challenge though, remains to
ensure a smooth and consistently reliable service standard for which fleet upgrade and
induction of technology is critical. The growth of car rental in India has remained consistent
and gradual, with organized players increasingly investing in luxury cars to cater the demands
of their customers. Rise in personal incomes, improved road infrastructure and increased
volumes of both inbound and domestic tourists are the chief factors for growth in rental
market.
The next five to ten years will witness a boom in the industry, which will outclass the old
players present in this segment. Owing to this cut-throat competition, the car rental
companies are going an extra mile to ensure that every need of the customer is kept in mind.
Apart from traditional car rental companies, there is a lot of direct and indirect competition
on the anvil. With variations in the model of business, entry of new players varies from
demarcated fleet to hourly rates to just being an intermediary connecting drivers with
passengers. Some of these players neither own the vehicles nor maintain them, but only act as
a marketplace. However, one will be able to be a long-term player and benefit from operating
a substantial fleet with a wide range of options. These options need to be centric to the needs
and wants of the consumer and innovative enough to re-define their choice as well as ground
transportation in India.

As a large dynamic country bridging the divide between its million cities, car rental will be
the next engine of growth for the travel in India. And as the direct and indirect competition is
changing the car rental market rapidly, quality and innovation are key factors to help continue
this growth.

The Indian cab market has seen a lot of traction, with over INR 600 crores being raised by the
leading players in the sector. While this has been a very competitive market, the organized
sector forms a small percentage of the overall market. It is estimated that the radio taxi
market in India is $6-9 billion dollars growing at 17-20%. It is also estimated that the number
of taxis in the organized sector will reach 30,000 by 2017.
The sector has in the past few years seen tremendous growth with nearly 10 large companies
operating in various models. But even in this clutter, three companies Ola Cabs, Meru Cabs
& Canzonet stand out in their product uniqueness, customer service responsiveness, driver
behaviour and timely arrivals.