Lyft, the $11 billion Uber rival, is beginning its international expansion. The company announced it would be launching in Toronto, Canada, by the end of this year.
Lyft’s first international city will be Toronto, Canada
The company will continue to face off against Uber in the Canadian city.
Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch
The company, which is in the middle of closing a $1 billion round from Alphabet, has been in hyper growth mode this year, launching in at least 100 additional cities across the U.S. over the last few months.
Now, Lyft is giving Uber a run for its money. New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber won’t be profitable in the U.S. for at least the next six months because of what Lyft was spending on growth.
“It depends on where the competition goes,” Khosrowshahi said at the New York Times DealBook conference last week. “Right now, we have a situation where Lyft is spending very aggressively to gain share.”
This year, Lyft ate into Uber’s marketshare nationally, causing the ride-hail behemoth’s hold on the U.S. to fall from 84 percent to 73 percent.
However, Uber has recovered its business in some of the major markets where it took the biggest hit — with the exception of San Francisco and New York.
That said, Lyft, too, doesn’t expect to be profitable imminently given its aggressive expansion plans, according to sources. That international expansion will also likely continue beyond Toronto into other English-speaking markets, those sources said.
Furthermore, the company is operating at a bit of a disadvantage since Uber is already in Toronto and other parts of Canada. The company only began its driver outreach today.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
