SINGAPORE: An app that intended to integrate numerous modes of transportation under one platform has folded, along with the SMRT-backed start-up that built it, less than two years after its introduction. Zipster, which was launched in September 2019 by mobilityX, a subsidiary of SMRT, stated at the time that it planned to provide commuters with almost limitless bus and train journeys for a fixed monthly subscription cost, as well as discounted rides on ride-hailing services and shared-bikes.
Following a beta test, it said it had roughly 16,000 users and had worked with Grab, Gojek, and electric car-sharing startup BlueSG to offer its services through the app.
During the launch ceremony, Enterprise Singapore announced a partnership with mobilityX to expand Zipster’s activities to additional countries in the area.
Zipster, however, was no longer accessible for download on Tuesday (June 29) when I checked the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Mr Axel Tan, general manager of SMRT Ventures, said, “The shareholders examined mobilityX’s potential and progress in light of the present difficult business and regulatory circumstances, and mutually decided not to continue investing this start-up company.”
MobilityX was funded by the local transportation company as well as Toyota Tsusho, Toyota’s general trading department, which invested an undisclosed sum in the company in 2018.
Mr Tan explained that “registered users were alerted in advance before Zipster app services were ended,” and that the intellectual property created will be “retained and analyzed for future initiatives.”
He didn’t explain when the decision to close mobilityX and end Zipster’s services was made.
As part of a three-month pilot at Singapore Science Park 2, mobilityX worked with ST Engineering and the Alliance for Action on Robotics to allow commuters to use Zipster to book driverless buses.
MobilityX personnel were not affected by the closure, according to SMRT, which did not respond to CNA’s questions.
Zipster used a “mobility-as-a-service” (MaaS) concept, which refers to apps that allow commuters to plan and pay for many modes of transportation from a single platform.
Whim, a MaaS app built by Finnish firm MaaS Global and dubbed the “Netflix of transportation” by the company, has yet to launch in the United States, despite promising to do so in 2019 in cooperation with transportation major ComfortDelGro.
MaaS Global had used around €50 million (US$59.5 million) of investors’ money in failed expansion attempts across Europe, according to the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Attempts to contact MaaS Global via the company’s website’s press email address were fruitless.
Park Byung Joon, an urban mobility specialist from Singapore University of Social Sciences, told CNA that the MaaS model is a “very ill-defined notion.”
“Exactly what is it?” “No one knows,” Associate Professor Park explained. He went on to say that the model is based on “a lot of assumptions” and that it would only function in a “perfect world.”
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