The matchmaking master is IAC... The internet beast that already owns most of Match Group (Tinder, Hinge, and more than 25 other dating apps) just invested $250M in Turo, Earth's leading car-sharing marketplace. In the announcement, InterActiveCorp (IAC) opened with "We like marketplaces." Concise. Here's the marketplace Turo has created:
- 10M people need short-term wheels: And they've downloaded Turo's app, which lets them rent somebody else's car for 1 day or several.
- 400K people have a car that's available: So they're putting their car (which on average sits idle 95% of the time) to work by renting it out.
- It has 1 big rival: Getaround, which has tech heavyweight SoftBank as an investor.
The business model is so simple... Turo acts as the middleman, connecting a supply of cars with demand, then taking a cut of the transaction (exactly how Airbnb works). One detail is crucial: Turo offers insurance so that the "#LastCallForMoll" backseat bachelorette road trip shenanigans don't leave the car owner with a mess.
Economics drive it, tech enables it... Our generation has student debt and jobs that aren't as secure as our parents'. We also need to set a high glamour bar on social media. Those are the conditions that let Airbnb unleash short-term apartment rentals, so we can travel cheaper than a hotel, and make money on our own place back home while we're at it.