MiCab partners with Japanese advertising company

TAXI-HAILING application MiCab on Tuesday said it is partnering with Japanese advertising firm Hallohallo Business, Inc. to launch MiAds or mobile internet advertising.
While assuring customers it will not implement surge pricing and booking charges, MiCab said the advertising services, aside from taxi subscription fees, will keep its business sustainable.
“Passengers can hail taxis through MiCab app, where they can enjoy zero booking fees and absolutely no surge pricing, as these will be shouldered by the revenue earned from MiAds,” MiCab said in a statement Tuesday.
The joint venture is expected to boost MiCab’s taxi base to 15,000 from the current 4,300 by the end of the year. These taxis will operate in six cities, namely Metro Cebu, Baguio, Iloilo, Bacolod, Metro Manila and Davao.
Through MiAds, Android tablets will be mounted on the dashboard of taxi units and will flash 15-second advertisements every 7.5 minutes to up to 80 passengers per taxi in a day.
“That has a dual purpose. When there is no passenger yet, the tablet functions as a passenger-hailing device. Once a passenger enters the cab, the tablet will play advertisements. That’s how we’ll earn,” MiCab Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eddie F. Ybañez said during a briefing.
Mr. Ybañez said they will distribute the tablets to taxi operators, who will shoulder its costs along with the data connection. These tablets are programmed to have only the MiCab app, which has its own navigation feature called MiDriver.
MiCab has already distributed around 4,000 tablets to its partner taxis.
Mr. Ybañez said it will be sharing 10% of the revenue from MiAds to its taxi partners, which is projected to be around P10,000 per taxi every month. The P10,000 will be coming from the P500 advertisement slot, multiplied to the 20 slots per tablet in every taxi. — Denise A. Valdez