eCabs Technologies CEO pitches digital growth to Australia’s taxi sector

eCabs Technologies CEO Matthew Bezzina has told delegates at Australia’s leading mobility conference that the country’s rides market is primed for digital transformation.

Speaking at the ATIA International Taxi Conference in Brisbane last week, Mr Bezzina said Australia’s market offers a powerful lesson for taxi operators worldwide: The rise of ride-hailing has not sounded the death knell for the local taxi industry.

“Australia is effectively going through the same transition we have seen in Europe: Global ride-hailing platforms became enormous, but the local taxi ecosystem doesn’t disappear.”

The ATIA conference on the Gold Coast, brought together some 160 attendees representing roughly 180 organisations across the Australian and New Zealand taxi ecosystem. 

Attendees included major and regional taxi operators, dispatch and booking companies, technology providers, government agencies, and industry associations. 

Founded in 2010 as a premium, tech-enabled taxi service in Malta, eCabs Technologies has since evolved into a global software company, pairing its ride-hailing platform with operational and marketing expertise to help international taxi operators compete in cities around the world.

A €23 million investment cycle has funded that evolution, giving eCab Technologies the scale and tooling to power platforms in regulated and highly competitive markets.

Mr Bezzina’s attendance at the Brisbane conference comes as eCabs Technologies is set to mark one year since the launch of its first strategic partnership in Australia, with its ride-hailing platform powering RooRides, an operator based in Western Australia.

Live and operational since August 2025, RooRides first launched in popular tourism destination Esperance but has plans to expand into additional vacation hotspots.

Addressing an industry panel discussion at the ATIA conference, Mr Bezzina said Australia remains home to a significant number of established taxi networks, regional operators and dispatch businesses.

In New South Wales in 2025, 39 per cent of surveyed customers had used taxis in the previous six months, against 48 per cent for app-based ride-hailing.

And, in regional NSW, taxis were actually more popular than rideshare. That, he said, is where the proposition lies for eCabs Technologies.

“Australia isn’t one market. It’s dozens of local markets,” Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are one proposition, but Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong and Darwin are followed by hundreds of regional taxi markets.

“You don’t need to beat Uber. You need the technology to defend and grow your share of a very large local transport market that’s growing year on year,” he said.

“As younger generations shift away from car ownership towards multimodality, smartphone adoption continues to grow, and more people move from rural areas into cities, the combined taxi and ride-hailing market will only get bigger.”

Mr Bezzina also outlined the scale of the opportunity. Australia's combined taxi and ride-hailing market is worth approximately €4.2–5.4 billion in annual passenger spend, with rideshare now the larger portion of that market.

With NSW representing roughly a third of Australia's population, Mr Bezzina argued the national market is comfortably above 150 million trips annually. Tourism adds substantially more, with tourists spending A$23 billion (around €13.8 billion) on taxi fares, including ride-hailing, in Australia in 2024.