While Uber is striking up partnerships in cities left, right and center, it's certainly not the only ride-sharing service around. Lyft is Uber's main competitor, and it has just announced a partnership with Starbucks.
The deal will see Starbucks customers being able to earn stars by using Lyft, drivers getting Starbucks gold status and Starbucks employees being able to use Lyft to get to and from work.
"There are two things most of us do every morning: get a cup of coffee and commute to work. Together with Starbucks, we can make both a friendlier, more enjoyable experience," said Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer in a statement. "Lyft and Starbucks share a lot of the same customers and importantly we share a commitment to doing right by our customers and our people. In the days, months and years ahead, we will launch exciting programs for loyal community members, and new products that will change the way we move around our cities."
Drivers will also be given opportunities to earn Starbucks loyalty stars and be gifted eGifts from riders as a more personal way for riders to be able to tip their drivers.
As mentioned, the partnership will see Starbucks employees being able to use Lyft to get to work, with Lyft saying that it was exploring the possibilities of launching some kind of cheap "transportation benefits" for people who work at Starbucks. In exploring those possibilities, there will be a test in an unspecified market to gauge whether or not Starbucks customers are interested in using the service to get to and from work.
Of course, it's notable that Starbucks has chosen to pursue a partnership with Lyft over Lyft's arguably more popular competitor Uber. Exactly why Starbucks chose Lyft is unknown.
"We have respect for Uber, but in this case we believe that Lyft is the company for us," said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in an interview with The New York Times. "We want to make these decisions based on the long term and based on business practices."
The competition between Uber and Lyft has been long-running, and last year, it was even revealed that Uber allegedly had an entire playbook dedicated to sabotaging Lyft and poaching drivers away from the service. While Uber might certainly be the more aggressive service in terms of expansion, that aggressiveness might be coming back to bite the company in that a number of cities and groups have launched campaigns against the service because of its effect on the taxi industry. The company was also recently under threat of experiencing a growth cap in New York.
