The duopoly of Uber and Lyft may seem to dominate the rideshare world, and in the United States they pretty much do. But there’s a third competitor that actually has a pretty humungous presence in other parts of the world called inDrive that’s starting to make a presence stateside. inDrive, which launched in the United States, beginning in Miami, last summer, is a lot like Uber and Lyft, but also completely different. For one thing, the company is Russian, or at least used to be Russian. Founded in the permafrost of Siberia as, we kid you not, a ridesharing Facebook group among friends, the company had explosive growth, eventually pulling out of Russia completely at the beginning of the war with Ukraine.

inDrive has a massive presence in hundreds of cities around the world, and markets in Latin America and Asia. The business model is different as well. Riders and drivers bid with each other for rides, coming up with a price that both can agree upon. The Big Bubble tried out the app, as both a rider and a driver, and even though the company definitely seems like it has more of a conscience, with policies that are aimed more toward doing the right thing than making a buck, it was still quite rough around the edges, and definitely didn’t have the level of polish Americans expect. But hopefully, this will improve in time, as the company becomes a bigger presence in the country, and more people learn about it.