Lyft to Partially Arrive in Mexico

Lyft was largely expected to become the latest rideshare service to arrive in Mexico after the company began hiring employees in Mexico City and Guadalajara. However, the expansion will start with only the technological team, although mobility services could be on the horizon.

Founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California, rideshare app Lyft currently offers services in the US and Canada. Mexico seems to be the next frontier for the company’s expansion, as LinkedIn vacancies opened in January for Lyft’s new offices in Guadalajara and Mexico City. New positions were posted as recently as last week, with Lyft looking for front and backend software engineers, customer experience associates and interns across the two cities. However, Lyft is not yet looking for drivers as its expansion into Mexico will start with programming and engineering.

“What we are doing here in Mexico is building technology teams. We have been here since 2020, it has been two years since we hired the first software developers. We are not offering our mobility services,” said Brian Salomaki, Team Leader, Lyft Mexico.

Rather than adding itself to the already competitive rideshare market in these cities, which include services from Uber, Didi, Cabify and Beat, Lyft will build a technological hub for which it aims to hire about 200 programmers. As demand for programmers and engineers continues growing, Lyft has had to look for talent in new markets. Its selection of Mexico speaks highly for the country’s reputation and future as an innovator and producer of talent.

Although Lyft does not yet plan to offer mobility services in Mexico, the expansion of its team could be a step in that direction. Demands by rideshare services are continuously increasing in urban centers, particularly by younger populations with shifting preferred modes of transportation.

Lyft could provide an exciting new alternative for the mobility of people of all ages across the country as well as drivers making a living through rideshare apps. A key differentiator between Lyft and Mexico’s leading rideshare platform Uber, which in 2019 concentrated 80 percent of the market, is that Lyft only increases prices by 2x during surge times while Uber can increase rates up to 8x. Furthermore, Lyft drivers earn close to US$2 more than Uber drivers an hour thanks to the opportunity to earn higher tips.

However, an expansion into Mexico could mean an adaptation to the market’s different vehicle adaptability and prices. Before this expansion, Lyft will continue building a programming and engineering team in the country, where its own mobility services could communicate a future arrival of Lyft’s full services.