![]() Experienced consumer tech product managers can tell you that educating users is the most difficult thing to do. “All-in-one” apps are a dangerous route to take for any venture just starting up.In other words, “journey planner” should NOT be the entry point for the consumer’s user journey with any mobility app in Singapore. Google Maps are installed in most phones by default, while as a startup MobilityX has to embark on a very expensive journey to acquire users. They know very clearly the route for their daily commute – and for ad-hoc/non-routine journeys, Google Maps does a pretty good job. I do not have specific stats with me, but I highly doubt that a typical urban commuter in Singapore starts their interaction with an app through a “journey planner” on a regular basis.Mobility-as-a-Service does not work in Southeast Asia – I have made these points quite clear in my previous commentary.When the high level strategy is wrong, no matter how competent and hardworking the executives are, the venture was doomed from the beginning. Zipster was flawed in its whole business model design and high level strategy in the first place. ![]() “LTA does not allow them to resell public transport fare at a discount or monthly package”, someone close to Zipster’s operations told me a while ago. I overheard from the chatter that some stakeholders blamed the inflexibility of Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore’s transport regulator (and asset owner), as the key reason why Zipster did not take off. Stories of it not going well started in the chatter before the pandemic hit. If you have ever worked in consumer tech, you would know that this number is, frankly, rather small. After launching in 2019, it attracted “more than 6,000” downloads in 100 days. The Zipster app was the main product of MobilityX. In my opinion, seed funding a company instead of just launching it as a corporate venture was the right thing to do for SMRT (or any other corporation trying venture building). In 2018, MobilityX reported ‘seed funding’ from SMRT, one of Singapore’s two major mass transit operators, to “to provide integrated “mobility-as-a-service” (MaaS) solutions to commuters and companies”.Ĭolin Lim, the then appointed CEO of MobilityX, had been working for SMRT for more than 3 years. It has been removed from the App Stores, and server links have been cut off from downloaded apps. Zipster, “Asia’s first all-in-one transport” app launched by a company called MobilityX, has finally, and predictably, met its demise. Comments and discussions can be channeled through The author, who wrote a previous piece about why Mobility-as-a-Service does not work in Southeast Asia, prefers to remain anonymous. This article is contributed by a Singapore-based investor who has previously lived in Europe, with slight editing from TLD.
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