Citymapper, a popular rival to Google Maps for commuters living in big cities, reported losses of £7.4m in 2021 – in 2020 its losses were £6.3m. These figures show the company is struggling to find a way to make a profit despite its popularity in the UK and elsewhere.

One of the main contributors to the losses was COVID-19. As the UK introduced various restrictions during the pandemic and encouraged people to work from home, the need for apps like Citymapper was reduced. Regarding the impact of COVID-19 and the longer-term outlook, the company said:

“In 2021, [Citymapper] Continued to be affected by COVID-19 with movement restrictions and a work-from-home directive still in place for most of the year, impacting revenue. Despite this short-term impact, the long-term outlook is positive, with app engagement reaching an all-time high in the second half of 2021 and app usage returning to pre-pandemic levels and continuing to grow organically beyond the end of the year. In addition to its consumer lines of business, Citymapper is now uniquely positioned to address the multi-billion B2B mobility technology market.”

The company has taken several steps to make itself profitable, for example, free users are shown non-personalized ads. It also offers a paid service called Citymapper Pass for Londoners, which gives you access to a range of transport modes with a travel card, including the Tube, bus, train, rideshare, black cabs, Lime bikes and electric scooters and Santander bikes. .

This paid option is only for customers in London, but as it extends similar offers to other cities, it should help the company become profitable. It also said that one card should work in several cities to facilitate customers.

source: Citymapper (PDF) Through The Telegraph (Yahoo! Finance)