Juno abruptly shut down and refers riders to Lyft

The clock is ticking to take your final Juno ride.

The New York-only ride-sharing service announced Monday that by 6 p.m. that same day it would cease operations. Juno started in NYC in 2016 and was bought for $200 million by Israeli transportation company Gett in 2017.

This morning Juno users saw this message on the app: 

On the company’s website, it said the service was shutting down “due to the changing market situation.” 

In a news release, Gett said it had formed a “strategic partnership” with ride-hailing app Lyft. Gett, which claims to serve 15,000 companies, said the company plans to pivot to connecting corporate clients with Lyft.

Gett also blamed “the enactment of misguided regulations in New York City earlier this year” for the end of Juno. New NYC regulations for 2019 capped the number of cars each ride service could offer and limited the amount of time drivers could “deadhead,” or drive without paying passengers in the car.

Harry Campbell, a former driver who runs The Rideshare Guy blog about all things ride-hailing, credited Juno for creating a “hopeful beacon for drivers” with a tip button, lower commissions, and other pro-driver incentives and options. 

But it couldn’t convince riders to stick with the new service after discounts dried up — and Lyft and Uber are hard to ditch. 

“I think this shows how important first-mover advantage is in the [ride-share] industry and also just how hard it is to grow ridership when Uber and Lyft’s product work pretty well for the most part,” Campbell wrote in an email.

Juno users were told Monday to switch to Lyft for future ride-sharing needs. An email said, “To continue riding, we recommend downloading the Lyft app. New to Lyft? Get $25 in Lyft credits. Simply click HERE to download the app and go to the Promos tab in the app and enter the code: LYFTJUNO25.” The same message was in the app:

Juno was infamously known for promising drivers equity and dropping the ball with a small, one-time payout. At least now it’s promising drivers and riders it won’t sell their account data — that’s something, right?