By the first half of 2017, Uber will have another competitor jostling with it for competition over the wallets of commuters in Johannesburg.

A taxi-hailing app called, Hopin, originally from Slovakia, wants its share of the African public commuter pie and has its eyes set on Johannesburg as its first venture into the continent.

Hopin first launched in 2012 in Slovakia to service the then untapped commuter market and his since spread to Prague in the Czech Republic. Uber only launched in Slovakia last year.

To date, Hopin receives 1 500 ride requests a day, serving 250 000 customers.

How it works

Hopin pretty much works in the same way Uber and other similar taxi apps do, except you can select various preferences for your ride.

The app allows you to: choose the type of vehicle, select the gender of the driver, calculate the estimated price of your ride, specify if you’ll be travelling with a pet, child/ren and are or travelling with someone with a disability – all before you finalise your ride request.

At the end of each ride, you can rate your driver, which will contribute to their driver ranking on the service.

You can pay for rides either via credit card and cash payment.

Speaking to htxt.africa, Hopin said it’s currently testing the service in Johannesburg and is expected to launch in Autumn next year.

The app is already downloadable for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

You can sign up to receive email updates on the launch in Johannesburg.

Applications for driver-partners are also open.

[Image – Hopin]