Startups

Play holiday roulette with Lyft

Ride on Wednesday and Thursday and you could win 24 hours of your own personal billboard in Times Square (among other things).

This beats your average advent calendar.
Lyft announced on Tuesday that the ridesharing company would be launching “Lyft Gift Roulette” in D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday, along with a handful of other Lyft markets.
The game works like this: Lyft randomly dispatches cars filled with prizes. Request a ride and you could end up in the ridesharing version of Santa’s sleigh … and get your pick of any one of the gifts on offer.
What could you score, you ask?
Prizes range from gift cards to a personal billboard in Times Square (24 hours of your name up in lights) to a Swagway hoverboard (you know, one of the ones that recently faced safety concerns from retailers).
But wait there’s more — Lyft is also partnering with PayPal for a little seasonal philanthropy. Tip your driver $5 or more (between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.) and PayPal will donate $5 to Meals on Wheels, up to a total of $100,000.
Players in D.C.’s crowded ridesharing market continue to expand their offerings and tweak their messages to attract and compete for customers. Uber announced on Dec. 11 that it will now offer wheelchair-accessible rides through a partnership with taxi drivers, and the District’s homegrown option, Split, launched an Android app on Monday.

Companies: Split / Lyft / Uber

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

The man charged in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting had a ton of tech connections

Northern Virginia defense contractor acquires aerospace startup in $4B deal

From rejection to innovation: How I built a tool to beat AI hiring algorithms at their own game

The US needs to train more cyber talent to keep the country secure

Technically Media