Uber might face stiff competition from duo Curb and Via in NYC

Uber car pooling took the world by storm, and now two more apps are trying their hands in making New York a friendly city as they are bringing ride-sharing service through a digital wallet to all yellow taxis in the Big Apple.

History suggests that Verifone has already been working with yellow taxis for years now to provide technologies like: credit card terminals, digital meters, driver tablets, etc. In October 2013 it acquired Curb, already an existing app while muzzling its own app known as Way2Ride and transferring users into Curb. Since the last year, Curb has allowed passengers to pay for the taxis simply by punching in the code from the backseat of the taxi comfortably.

Verifone powers two-thirds of NYC’s approximately 15,000 cabs, and to date Curb has “a couple million accounts set up” and has powered “several hundred thousand trips a month” according to Jason Gross, global head of product and marketing for taxis at Verifone. He has also stated that NYC’s Curb has been used most extensively for payments more than any other wallet or payment system.

Via has also been around since September 2013 focusing on multi-passenger rides and making them more potent. Via’s VP of communication Gabrielle McCaig has said that Via has 800,000 members who have signed up for the service.

With the partnership brewing between Curb and Via, users can actually take the advantage of hauling taxis regardless from any app.