Lyft facts for kids
| Public | |
| Traded as |
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| Industry | Vehicle for hire |
| Founded | June 9, 2012 (as Zimride) |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
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Area served
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Key people
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| Revenue |  US$5.79 billion (2024) |
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Operating income
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▲ US$-119 million (2024) |
| US$22.8 million (2024) |
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| Total assets | US$5.44 billion (2024) |
| Total equity | US$767 million (2024) |
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Number of employees
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2,934 (2024) |
| Subsidiaries |
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Lyft, Inc. is an American company that helps people get around. It offers services like ride-hailing, where you can use an app to get a ride from a driver. Lyft also provides motorized scooters and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada. Through its Free Now app, it also operates in Europe.
Lyft sets the prices for rides, which can change based on how many people need a ride and how many drivers are available. The price is shown to the customer before they book. Lyft earns money by taking a small fee from each ride. It is the second-largest company offering these kinds of services in the United States, after Uber.
Contents
History
How Lyft Started
Lyft was started in the summer of 2012 by two computer programmers, Logan Green and John Zimmer. Before Lyft, they had another company called Zimride. Zimride helped college students find long-distance carpools. Logan Green got the idea for Zimride after sharing rides from his college to visit his girlfriend. He wanted to make it easier for people to share rides.
In May 2013, the company changed its name from Zimride to Lyft. A couple of months later, in July 2013, Lyft sold the original Zimride service. It was bought by Enterprise Holdings, which owns Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The Pink Mustache and Growth
Lyft used a fun marketing idea when it first started. Drivers would put large, pink, furry mustaches on the front of their cars. Riders were also encouraged to sit in the front seat and give drivers a fist bump when they met. By November 2014, the company stopped encouraging the fist bump. In January 2015, Lyft introduced a smaller, glowing plastic mustache for the dashboard. This "glowstache" was an alternative to the big fuzzy mustaches. It helped people who might not want to arrive at places like business meetings in a car with a giant mustache.
In August 2014, Lyft started offering shared transport. This allowed multiple passengers going in the same direction to share a ride.
Lyft expanded into Canada in December 2017. It began operating in cities like Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa.
New Partnerships and Services
In March 2018, Lyft teamed up with Allscripts. This partnership created a way for healthcare providers to arrange rides for patients. It helped patients who needed transportation to their doctor's appointments. The service was planned to reach many hospitals and doctors.
Lyft also bought Motivate in November 2018. Motivate operates many bicycle-sharing systems, including Capital Bikeshare and Citi Bike. Lyft planned to add many more Citi Bikes and expand its bike-sharing services.
In March 2019, Lyft became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold on the stock market. Lyft raised $2.34 billion and was valued at $24.3 billion. The company even set aside some shares to give to its long-time drivers.
Recent Developments
In March 2020, Lyft bought Halo Cars. This company paid drivers to show digital advertisements on their vehicles. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Lyft had to reduce its staff. It laid off 982 employees and temporarily stopped work for 288 others to save money. Lyft continued to offer scooters for rent in San Francisco, but some cities asked them to stop.
In August 2020, Lyft partnered with the rental car company Sixt. This allowed Lyft users to rent cars through the app. Most of these rental cars are owned and operated by Sixt.
In December 2020, Lyft announced plans for a robotaxi service in several U.S. cities with Motional. However, Lyft later sold its self-driving car division to Toyota for $550 million in April 2021. This division had worked with other big companies like General Motors and Ford Motor Company. It also owned Blue Vision Labs, a company that worked on augmented reality.
In April 2022, Lyft announced it would buy PBSC Urban Solutions. This Canadian company supplies equipment and technology for bike-sharing systems. In November 2022, Lyft announced layoffs of about 700 employees.
In March 2023, David Risher became the new CEO of Lyft. In April 2023, the company announced more layoffs, affecting 1,076 corporate workers. These job cuts followed earlier ones in 2022.
In September 2023, Lyft stopped its car rental service called Lyft Rentals.
For the second quarter of 2024, Lyft made its first profit in the company's history.
In July 2025, Lyft bought Free Now for €175 million. This helped Lyft expand its services in Europe.
See also
In Spanish: Lyft para niños
- Ride sharing privacy
