Mozio: running a ‘true’ marketplace for booking that last mile

A San Francisco based partnership is tapping into an unmissed opportunity – that almost no airlines or OTAs sell ground transportation. Sally White reports

“Most airports are conducting digital experiments, and many are putting in place long-term digital solutions. But few are undertaking the fundamental digital transformations that can resolve travellers’ frustrations....” so says the highly respected Boston Consulting Group in its 2016 Air Transport Industry Insights.

Some of the frustrations, at least, are now being taken away at 2,500 airports by Mozio. Just four years on from its San Francisco start-up this airport transfer search and booking engine is making quantum leaps.

“We are closing more and more deals with hotel chains, airlines and online travel agencies, and yes, we are also expanding our efforts to market our consumer brand as well,” says David Litwak, who founded Mozio back in 2012.

Then he was sure that absolutely no one was trying to help travellers’ frustrations either at or between airports. Certainly not travellers like him, trying to make complicated link-ups between US discount air flights.

..in 2012 there were loads of search engines to help him [Litwak] find cut-price airfares, but he could find nothing to help him catch the flights

As he tells it, in 2012 there were loads of search engines to help him find cut-price fares, but he could find nothing to help him catch the flights. It was a case of “having to use multiple websites to compare buses vs. trains vs planes”.

He decided to channel his frustration into a business. A passionate traveller (70 countries-worth now) with a degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from Berkeley and a CV that includes Skype, Northrop Grumman and Criteo, he was well qualified. His aim was to come up with “technology to let you book your limo, flight, bus, train and airport shuttle ALL with one click”. And apart from providing a guide around airports, he wanted to create technology that allowed all strangers in town to “travel like a local”.

Planning it right

So, as he planned it right from the beginning, the first stage was to offer shared-ride shuttles, airport service buses, limos, taxis, public transit and any other options for getting to and from airports. Then came a transportation search engine that got travellers from doorstep to destination by integrating the local ground transportation options with the buses, trains, planes and ferries that comprise the second leg of the journey.

There has been relatively little outside funding and the core team is still Litwak and a friend from Berkeley, Joseph Metzinger. In 2012 Mozio, which is San Francisco-based, started with seed-corn funding of $185,000 in which then Expedia chairman Jeff Clarke participated. Two years later, in 2014, came another round, this time $750,000, which attracted a whole host of fellow online travel entrepreneurs, including J.R. Johnson (Trippy.com and VirtualTourist.com) and Ross Weber (ClickTripz CEO).

That funding was to add some staff “more coders to move quicker and more bizdev people”. Litwak said they wanted to speed up the pace of growth and go into more countries, which meant adding languages and currencies. With a commission rate of around 25%, Mozio has not been strapped for cash for expansion, although it could go for more now given the success of its business model.

Mozio has got there, having established itself as a ground transportation technology platform. It is in airports in getting on for 200 countries and works with 2,300 transport providers including the likes of Heathrow Express, and Sweden and the UK’s bus lines Arlanda Express and National Express.

Litwak took the B2B route and Mozio is partnered with all the local shared-ride shuttles, air porters, taxis, limos, express trains, ferries, helicopters it can find, plus the OTAs, airline, hotels and car rental agencies and websites. Its attraction is that it has just one application programme interface - a self-service website that allows them to make money out of airport transfers, too.

The partnerships have scaled up nicely and now include Skyscanner, Fareportal, CheapOair, LuluTrip, Super Shuttle, Homeaway, Tripcase and Booking.com.

“Top brands like Booking.com and Hotels.com have chosen us when tested against other brands because our user experience is top notch. We have thought of every little thing, from Google Places Autocomplete to an integration with Flightstats that means our customers don't need to go and look for their flight number,” says Litwak.

“We also run a true marketplace: when you look at other competitors, they disguise the brand that is actually providing the service, and instead sell you a general sedan or shuttle. This is a way of disguising the provider so that they can't be cut out and the user can't check the price. What it leads to is lower conversions and less trust as consumers realise they are probably not getting the best deal.

Mozio runs a real marketplace, our brands compete against each other, and this leads to both higher conversions and higher commissions and lower prices.

“Mozio runs a real marketplace, our brands compete against each other, and this leads to both higher conversions and higher commissions and lower prices.”

The current big push is to get into corporate travel, hoping to attract business from travel management companies and corporate agencies. Corporate travellers are often left to fend for themselves on the first and last legs of their journeys, he says, because this is not seen a profitable segment.

Yet, says Litwak, agencies could make money here with Mozio’s technology - it can, he says, be used by any agent to book ground transportation in less than a minute. There are 3 billion passenger flights every year, but almost no airlines or OTAs sell ground transportation.

This is valuable ancillary revenue that is being missed!

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