One year after its pilot launch, inDrive.Ads has surpassed two billion impressions globally and expanded to 25 countries, including South Africa, as inDrive builds advertising into its model as an additional source of revenue beyond ride commissions.
The milestone comes seven months after inDrive.Ads launched in South Africa in February 2026, bringing advertising into the inDrive app and allowing brands to reach consumers at different points in their ride journey.
At the same time, South African advertisers continue to direct growing investment towards digital channels, with the IAB South Africa and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report finding that local online advertising revenue grew by 21.5% year on year to R17.7 billion in 2023.
South Africa also stands out for the breadth of categories represented across the wider advertising market. Rather than any single sector dominating, demand is spread across a diverse ecosystem, with banking brands such as Standard Bank, FNB and Capitec competing for consumer attention alongside major retail brands and a growing base of local small businesses.
This broader market context is reflected in inDrive.Ads’ own local performance: based on inDrive’s January to August 2026 data from Google Ad Manager, active monthly advertisers more than doubled over the period, growing 2.2 times, while eCPM increased nearly fourfold, pointing to growing advertiser activity and increased value being placed on South African digital inventory.
“South African consumers spend a significant part of their daily lives on their mobile phones, which means brands are continually looking at how and where they can reach them meaningfully,” says Ashif Black, Country Representative for inDrive South Africa.
inDrive.Ads sits inside a different kind of media environment – what we call Ride Media. Instead of interrupting people in the middle of something else, ads appear during moments that are already happening on their own: whether someone’s waiting for their ride to arrive, or a driver’s waiting for their next passenger. There’s nothing to skip past and nothing competing for attention – the ad is simply present in a moment the rider is already in, the same way a billboard is present on a street someone’s already walking down.
Globally, inDrive.Ads has grown to more than 2,000 active advertisers each month during its first year and is now operating across 25 markets in Latin America, EMEA and APAC.
The platform has also introduced an integrated consent management system, giving users greater control over their data and privacy choices. This is particularly relevant in South Africa, where the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) places obligations on organisations around the lawful and responsible processing of personal information.
“The first year was about building a strong advertising monetisation foundation to sustain our future growth,” says Max Silin, Director, inDrive.Ads. “Next, as inDrive evolves into a retail media ecosystem, we are moving towards a model where ads support holistic, value-driven, user-centric journeys, making every touchpoint an organic part of the experience.”
Advertising that supports the wider inDrive model
inDrive.Ads connects brands with inDrive’s large, highly engaged user base while generating an additional revenue stream that helps the company keep driver commissions and rider fares among the lowest in the industry. This is particularly relevant in South Africa, where transport affordability remains an important consideration for both passengers and drivers.
A portion of inDrive’s global advertising inventory is also allocated to its social impact programmes. During the first half of 2026, this provided more than 1.7 million impressions in support of initiatives including Juntas Llegamos in Mexico, Colombia and Peru, inVision University in Kazakhstan and the Alternativa Film Festival in Colombia.
For South Africa, Black says the opportunity lies in building an advertising model that can create value for brands while supporting the economics of the wider mobility platform.
“South Africa is a market where both riders and drivers feel cost pressures very directly, so how we grow the platform needs to be carefully considered against our local context,” says Black. “As inDrive.Ads develops locally, we can give South African brands a new way to reach consumers during everyday journeys. For us, the opportunity is to grow that advertising business while continuing to protect the affordability and low commissions that are important to our users.”
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