Digital mobility platform product diversification strategies: becoming MaaS operators

Digitalisation has revolutionised all sectors of the economy and transport is no exception. While digitalisation is involved in many aspects of existing transport services, from generating e-tickets to predicting road congestion levels, it has also led to the birth and development of platform-based shared mobility operators, making them important players in today's transport ecosystem. The impacts of these shared mobility platforms (e-scooter sharing, bike sharing, car sharing, carpooling, etc.) on existing modes of transport have attracted much attention in academia (Campbell and Brakewood, 2017; Hall et al., 2018; Yeung and Zhu, 2022). City authorities have taken different approaches to regulating these platforms. While it is still too soon to draw firm conclusions, there is a consensus that digital mobility needs data-driven regulation. If they are well implemented, digital platforms can contribute to a smooth user-centric low-carbon mobility system, which is the key vision of MaaS (mobility as a service). MaaS relies on a digital interface to achieve this aim, a platform that not only centralises travel information to optimise itineraries based on user preferences but also provides an integrated ticketing service which enables multimodal personalised fares.