SmartMumbaikar.com Launches Today: Simplifies Commuting in Mumbai With the Smart Use of Social Media

Fuel prices are soaring in India and everyone from school going students to working people needs to commute. Google maps and several websites can help you find local information and routes to places you don't know. “But what about the routes and local information you already know?” is the question Raxit Sheth, founder ofSmartMumbaikar.com asked himself.Like any another Mumbaikar, frustrated with the commuting hurdles such as money spent and time taken, Raxit urged to find a solution that would sort this issue of a daily commuter in Mumbai for good. He realised that daily commute is a basic need of everyone, and the market is un-tapped. He also felt that there was very less information technology innovation. Seeing this vacuum, Raxit launched SmartMumbaikar, a platform that brings technology and the smart use of social media to make daily commute easier for millions of Mumbaikars.

How it works:

SmartMumbaikar.com helps you to find out who can accompany you on your daily routes from your Facebook friends and friends of friends. For this, the user has to use SmartMumbaikar facebook application, enter the journey details, preferences and as soon as a match is found, you will be contacted.

This way, they intend to help regular Bus/Local travellers to help find company and share a cab as well as regular auto/ taxi travellers to find company and share the cost!

“70% of the people are underutilizing auto-rickshaws, cars and taxis during rush hours. While the auto or taxi has a capacity of 3 or 4 people, going alone results in more traffic and more crowded Buses and Locals. This is also the main reason why it is tough to find an empty auto-rickshaw and taxi in rush hours!” says Raxit.

StartingUp:

Raxit is an entrepreneur who does not believe that having a regular job can detract from his effectiveness. Leaving his 9 to 5 job, Raxit concentrates on developing products and services. “It’s not about doing a job or leaving a job, it’s about creating value to the end user, making hi/her life easier,” he says.

He faced problems of handling the crazy increasing user base and also scaling up the team initially, till Parth Lalcheta (Atmiya Institute, Rajkot), Pankaj Singh (IIT Kharagpur) and Pradeep Paijwar came around to help him.

"As people want to travel with trusted people, social media gives interesting data about users and their friend information, instead of just fun. The idea of social media changing daily commute really excites me," says Parth.

Just after its soft-launch a week ago, SmartMumbaikar has already received a whooping response of 12,000 registrations. Considering the pain areas it addresses, Raxit is expecting the app to go viral, just like his previous app Mobile4Mumbai did.

“With SmartMumbaikar, we want to improve the daily travel of Mumbaikars using Mobile and Cloud technology. The aim is to help the user save money and make his/her travel a pleasant experience!” concludes Raxit.