BlaBlaCar announced in 2018 that it would buy the coach operator Ouibus from SNCF. The transaction expanded BlaBlaCar beyond carpooling into scheduled intercity bus travel and brought France’s state railway group into the company’s ownership story.
Ouibus had been created by SNCF in 2012 as an intercity coach business. In November 2018, BlaBlaCar announced the purchase, and SNCF became a shareholder in BlaBlaCar as part of the transaction. The acquired service was renamed BlaBlaBus, linking its coach network to BlaBlaCar’s established brand.
The name history can cause confusion. Ouibus is the operator BlaBlaCar agreed to buy; BlaBlaBus was the post-acquisition brand. In 2021, BlaBlaBus was rebranded BlaBlaCar Bus, the name used for the company’s intercity coach service today.
Megabus, Eurolines, and FlixBus were other major coach brands, but none is the operator identified in this question. The deal also helped BlaBlaCar offer passengers a choice between shared car journeys and fixed-route buses.