What a Siberian Startup and a Saudi Ticketing App Reveal About Travel’s Future

On my recent visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I “discovered” a new local app that bills itself as the “super app for fun.” It’s called Webook, and I’ve been obsessed with it — so much so that I asked every local I met for their thoughts. It recently added flights and hotels, and that matters in ways I’ll come back to later.

I went down the rabbit hole of connecting the dots and started to see a pattern emerging in the next generation of apps. It deserves more attention than it’s getting.

Another development pushed this idea even further: a ride-hailing company born in Siberia and expanding into Saudi Arabia has become the second most-downloaded ride-hailing app in the world by letting passengers and drivers negotiate fares directly, the opposite of how Uber built its empire.

Together, these apps represent a fundamental rethinking of where value accrues in travel and mobility, and who gets to capture it.

The common thread I kee