Harrison Amit is leading a small startup with a big idea.
“The vision for the company is helping over 10 million drivers,” said the 28-year-old CEO of Hovr (pronounced Hover).
The Toronto-based ride-hailing company launches today, and will service the city and surrounding suburbs.
Amit’s goal is to make the company a national brand within a year and go way beyond that.
The question is whether this young entrepreneur compete with the global giant Uber, which has a 15-year head start and had 150 million active monthly users in Q4 2023 (including Uber Eats customers), or Lyft, which was founded 12 years ago and had 22 million active monthly riders in Q4.
Hovr’s yet to provide a single ride, but Amit believes his company’s approach could shake up the ride-hailing industry because of how it will pay drivers.
“Our tagline at Hovr is 100 per cent fare is 100 per cent fair. And what that means is that the drivers take home 100 per cent of the fare from every ride that they receive.”
It’s a play on words, but also a strategic play, setting Hovr apart from the giants it’s up against.
What 100% of the fare means
Amit says Hovr will appeal to drivers because instead of taking a percentage of the total fare on every trip to turn a profit like Uber and Lyft do, Hovr will charge a $20 monthly membership fee to work for the service.
That price is an introductory rate that Amit says will rise as the business grows, but a fixed cost means drivers don’t pay more for working more.
That’s how Hovr lets drivers keep “100 per cent of the fare.”
Hovr says it will make the costs of each ride transparent, giving riders a bill that shows the fare or driver’s pay (the base rate, kilometres and time), and includes what the passenger is being charged for insurance, city fees, a transaction fee plus a $1 “platform fee” from the company.
Amit says the 100 per cent fair slogan has helped sign up 5,000 drivers and 25,000 potential customers, through word of mouth, social media and a few billboards in downtown Toronto.
Milton Brady, a former cabbie who’s been with Uber for four years, said he couldn’t wait to sign up for Hovr.
“Hovr is a knight in shining armour,” he said.
Brady says the industry needs more competition to make things better for drivers, and that Hovr’s pay model would give drivers a “chance to actually build some kind of economical stability in their lives.”
Ride-hailing ripe for disruption?
In Amit’s view, the ride-hailing business is due for a shake-up, like the taxi business was upset by Uber when it arrived.
“We’re entering a market that is ripe for disruption,” he said, “It’s riddled with dissatisfaction, on both sides from the riders and the drivers.”
Kam Phung, an assistant professor with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, says the ride-hailing industry is in need of change. (submitted by Kam Phung)
“As an industry, ride hailing is in need of change,” said Kam Phung, an assistant professor with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
“We know that it is riddled with problems and challenges, specifically on the workers’ rights fronts.”
On Valentine’s Day this year, a driver protest and strike was staged in several cities around the world as some gig workers logged off their apps, refusing work to bring attention to their pay and working conditions.
In Toronto, a report from Ridefair Toronto and the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario (RDAO) estimated many drivers were making less than minimum wage after expenses.
Toronto ride-hailing and food delivery drivers strike for better pay, working conditions
3 months ago
Duration 2:12
Some local drivers with companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are striking Wednesday to call for higher wages. In a statement, Uber said the “vast majority of drivers are satisfied,” but drivers told CBC Toronto many of them are being paid less than $10 an hour.
What Uber and Lyft say about the business and fair pay
Both Uber and Lyft see the ride-hailing industry as thriving and report positive trends in their quarterly reports.
Both have also said they feel competition is good for consumers and drivers.
Uber Canada told CBC News in a statement “the vast majority of drivers are satisfied,” and in the Toronto area, for example, “are making $33.35 during engaged time per hour before tips.”
The company also said it believes “drivers should earn a guaranteed minimum wage,” and it will comply with new laws in Ontario and BC that enforce such a standard.
In an interview with CBC News, Lyft CEO David Risher said roughly speaking, out of every dollar that you as a rider pay, Lyft earns about nine cents.
He said the remaining 91 cents is split between insurance and other fees, but most of it goes to the driver.
“It’s in our best interest that drivers actually get paid more, because it means more people are on the platform,” he said.
Lyft CEO David Risher says that out of every dollar a rider pays, Lyft earns about nine cents. (David Hill/CBC)
A global brand?
Amit says Hovr is “positioning itself for the global stage,” but interest from drivers will be the key to the company’s growth.
He hopes drivers who are excited about Hovr and working for Lyft or Uber will convince their passengers to switch over, as well.
“I don’t believe there’s any level of brand loyalty, it’s more of a forced relationship with these companies, due to a lack of options.”
Phung believes Hovr could grow quickly because there’s a demand from some consumers for “gig-economy models that actually allow workers to have a fair wage, and contribute to the creation of a just and equitable society.”
But, he added, the reality of competing against big multinationals means the company could be in for a bumpy ride.
This was one of the signs displayed on cars that circled Toronto’s Union Station as part of a gig-worker and driver protest this week against ride-hailing companies and food-delivery services. (Philippe de Montigny/CBC)
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
