Sir Richard Branson keen to compete with Uber and Airbnb

Sir Richard Branson, who has built a conglomerate spanning transport, telecommunications and finance, could launch a rival to Uber the taxi-hailing app, saying his company should be involved in the sharing economy, competing with the likes of Uber and Airbnb.

 Sir Richard Branson said “ I quite often tell my team.’ We should be competing with Airbnb amd Uber. We have got the brand and may be oneday we’ll set up an alternative.” Last month amid Black cabs protest at competition from Uber, Sir Richard Branson urged London’s traditional black taxi business to “accept” that there is a new successful model in the industry and they must either embrace it or change what they are doing. Countries who try to ban Uber are holding themselves back. It is like banning Google because it is competing with education. You must embrace it.”

Uber has been banned in several cities across the world over fears of anti-competitive practices as drivers can charge lower fares than traditional cabs. “You cannot turn the clock back, once you have let the genie out of the box, and people are benefiting something, you can’t put it back in.”

Transport for London is considering anti-competitive proposals that would favour tradition black cabs. According to leaked documents there must be a minimum wait-time of five minutes between ordering a minicab and it arriving and a requirement that operators “must not show vehicles being available for immediate hire either visibly or virtually via an app”