Kazakhstanis report that after a malfunction in Yandex services, inDrive ride prices rose sharply – sometimes threefold compared to usual. Company founder Arsen Tomsky said the service will try to contain the price growth. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Complaints about price hikes
Kazakhstanis on Threads report a sharp increase in taxi ride costs via inDrive on the morning of October 11 after the Yandex Go service stopped working. One user noted that prices "soared to the skies": if a ride used to cost 900 tenge, now a taxi can only be called for 2,600 tenge.
Other users note that the cost of a taxi ride in Almaty reaches 4,000 tenge. Some were also dissatisfied with the quality of rides and the service.
Arsen Tomsky's comment
The situation became so serious that it was commented on by inDrive founder and CEO Arsen Tomsky. He acknowledged that the sharp influx of passengers created an imbalance between supply and demand. According to him, the company has already reduced commissions to the minimum level necessary to cover mandatory taxes in order to attract drivers.
"Today, most likely, we will additionally limit the bargaining range to contain excessive price growth," Arsen Tomsky said.
Yandex Go outage
It was previously reported that Kazakhstan is experiencing malfunctions in the operation of Yandex Go services – taxi and food and goods delivery. The company claims it is working to restore the services, but the exact timing is still unknown.
Thus, the Yandex Go outage led to a sharp rise in inDrive prices, and the company's management is taking measures to contain the price growth.