This is Zipcar’s third strategic move into the European market through acquisition or equity investment. Zipcar bought London-based Streetcar in 2010, and late last year took a majority stake investment in Barcelona-based Avancar. Frost & Sullivan has projected a $3 billion market for car sharing in the European Union alone.

Griffith told me in an interview that Zipcar has been watching CarSharing.at for about 6 months as it captured market share in Austria. Vienna is a particularly important market for Zipcar’s expansion into Europe, said Griffith, and with Vienna, Barcelona and London, “we have three cities and a deliberate strategy to replicate our network in North America in Europe.” Zipcar will begin using the Zipcar brand for CarSharing.at users by the beginning of next year.

While European expansion is Zipcar’s primary goal right now, expanding into Asia is a more “medium term” plan, and Griffith said Zipcar would likely create a partnership if it expands in Asia. “In Europe we want to be the operator and owner of the network, but we feel differently about the market in Asia,” said Griffith.

Beyond European growth, Zipcar has been looking into the peer-to-peer car sharing market — where car owners rent out their cars into the network — through its investment in startup Wheelz. Griffith told me that Zipcar is interested in peer-to-peer car sharing for two reasons: 1) peer-to-peer could expand the footprint of Zipcar users into markets with lower volume use, as Zipcar makes most of its money off of cars that are rented out a lot, and 2) peer-to-peer could also introduce more vehicles into a network when demand is high and the car fleet available is small.

However, Griffith also told me that peer-to-peer “as a standalone business is a tough model,” as “so much of the revenue is shared with the car owner.”

Zipcar has 700,000 members and 9,000 vehicles in its global fleet.

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According to Griffith, every Zipcar replaces 15 to 20 personal cars. “So just by growing the business we are having a substantial economic and environmental impact,” he says.

Further supporting Griffith’s belief in the potential of car sharing, Zipcar turned its first quarter profit in a decade recently.

Below Griffith answers questions about the future of the company and the car sharing market.

How do you convince people in the U.S. to give up their cars and switch to a car sharing program?

We see our greatest competition as personal car ownership and the American dream of a car in every garage. This has been inextricably tied to the American dream for almost 100 years. But that marketing home run has had some dire consequences —  environmental and economic. According to the U.S. Census, Americans spend an average of 19 percent of household income on cars that sit idle most of the time. The dream has turned into a nightmare for many, particularly for those living in congested cities, where a parking spot alone can cost hundreds of dollars each month on top of car payments, insurance, and repairs.

Based on member surveys, we know that Zipcar households spend only six percent of income on transportation. About half of Zipcar members sell a car or choose not to buy a car as a result of their Zipcar membership. That makes urban life more affordable for many, many people. For our more than 650,000 members, the value proposition is loud and clear.

Why do you think the Millennials are more open to alternatives to personal car ownership?

Age matters when it comes to cars. We’ve conducted two years of research on the attitudes of Millennials (18-34 year olds) toward transportation, and we’ve found that access is more important that ownership when it comes to transportation and car ownership.

There are three factors at play here: the economy, technology, and social networks. First, the economic downturn has been particularly hard on Millennials, who entered the workforce at a time when the economy was in its doldrums and continues to be stagnant. They have been hit hard by unemployment and under-employment. They just can’t afford to own a car.

Second, this is an “always on” connected generation that has grown up buying music by the song, so paying for a car by the hour is not a crazy idea. Furthermore, they tend to place more emphasis on the type of mobile device they carry, over the type of car they would drive.

Third, this generation has other ways to socialize. They can be “present” without being in the same place, thanks to Facebook, foursquare, Twitter, text, and other forms of communication that just didn’t exist 5 to 10 years ago. Our Millennials survey shows that this group is substituting trips on the asphalt highway for trips on the information superhighway.

All told, you have a generation of smart, collaborative consumers who know the value of access versus ownership, are open to new ideas, and have ways to socialize without getting behind the wheel.

What does Zipcar’s success say about the future of transportation and car ownership in the U.S.?

The future of transportation and car ownership is changing now and will continue to change. We are faced with increasing energy costs, an aging transportation infrastructure, increased population growth in our cities and an increase in the use of mobile technology. All of these factors will continue to generate greater awareness for alternatives to personal car ownership.

This is a profound change for planners and policy makers. It’s time for policy makers – particularly those in DC – to accept that our youngest generation and future generations are not going to think about transportation the way we have for the last hundred years. Unfortunately, federal policy makers haven’t caught up yet. Many of them are still thinking about housing, land use, highways, bridges, and taxing gasoline like it’s 1971 not 2011. It’s time to build a bigger tent – we need to spin up a discussion on mobility policy, moving way beyond the silo of “highway” policy that drives most if not all of the discussion now.

Have you faced any resistance from city or state governments?

In terms of city and state governments, we’ve found that the civic and economic benefits of Zipcar are quite clear. We also help local city and state governments to save money on their own fleets. We have struck deals with the New York Department of Transportation as well as the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and we even signed an agreement with the Federal Government (GSA) to offer car sharing to federal entities. Zipcar also provides a range of car sharing and FastFleet technology services to a variety of additional city, county and state government entities including the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Sacramento, Portland, Oregon, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Wilmington, Delaware, as well as to the county of Santa Cruz.

City and state governments can really accelerate the growth of car sharing through smart policies. Given the proven economic, social, and environmental benefits of car sharing, more and more of them are looking at car sharing as a cost effective tool for congestion management, emissions reduction and parking demand management. Most of the policy makers I meet are fully supportive of car sharing, but it will take time. Even in the face of difficult economic headwinds when the public is looking for bold leadership, the wheels of government sometimes move at a frustratingly slow pace.

What factors do you take into consideration before deciding to bring Zipcar to a city? 

We look at three key factors. The first is high population density, the second is a strong public transportation infrastructure, and the third is expensive and hard to find parking. We have operations in our nation’s three largest cities – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — but we also have presence in smaller U.S. cities such as Providence, Rhode Island and Sacramento, California. A strong public transit structure is key since it enables our users to augment their transportation needs through a variety of resources Zipcar, trains, buses, biking, etc.

As Zipcar has reached scale, the economics and efficiencies of the model have changed, allowing us to be successful in smaller markets. This was not possible in the earlier days of Zipcar, and one of the main reasons we looked to private, and eventually public, capital. With scale, experience and knowledge comes opportunities to serve places where the model might not otherwise have worked.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in growing the company? 

Our biggest challenges right now are focused on how we extend the model globally. We see tremendous potential for growth. Globally, car sharing is estimated to be a $10B business annually. Frost & Sullivan has projected a $5 billion market in the E.U. alone. The pie is even larger when you consider Asia. We need to make sure that, as we evolve the brand, we think and act like a global company. We’re working on that right now.

Where do you plan to expand to next?

Growth in Europe and Asia is critical to our growth. Last December, we acquired Streetcar, the largest car sharing provider in the UK, and last month we finalized the integration of the two brands. Zipcar is the largest car sharing provider in the U.K. and we are looking to expand in continental Europe. We will be looking at similar criteria in Europe as we seek to expand.

It’s worth noting that we own a minority stake in Spain’s largest car sharing company, Avancar. That may also be an opportunity for further expansion in the E.U. in the medium term.

In some ways, Zipcar seems like an easier sell in Europe and Asia. What are some of the particular cultural and governmental challenges you face in international markets?

I think it’s fair to say that most Europeans are more accustomed to the so-called “sharing economy” than most Americans. Many European cities have highly sophisticated and efficient rail lines that get people in and around cities and are networked to other cities in Europe. Because of this, the high cost of gas, and extremely limited parking, there is less dependence on personal car ownership.

So from that point of view, Zipcar could be an easier sell. We also see early popularity of major bike sharing programs, the implementation of congestion charges as well as other policy and structural initiatives in the E.U. that are likely to be tailwinds for car sharing adoption.

In Asia, along with the explosive growth of cities, governments have done an outstanding job of building intricate, new rail lines. In some Asian cities, car sharing will become a necessity. You just can’t have one car per household when you have cities like Shanghai with a population of 23 million. In addition, the adoption of mobile/wireless technologies and smart devices is huge in Asia, and consumers there are very comfortable with using apps designed to make their lives more efficient and fun.

The globe is urbanizing. About half of the world’s population lives in cities now and that’s projected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years. This is a global trend that help increase the adoption of car sharing and other smart mobility services.

What is Zipcar doing to stay ahead of Hertz on Demand and other car sharing companies?

We created the car-sharing category here in the U.S., and we continue to innovate the entire value chain, from developing award-winning websites and interfaces, to creating game-changing enhancements like two-way text, iPhone, Android and Facebook applications, to working with auto manufacturers like Ford and Toyota to more closely integrate their vehicles into the space. We have more cars and more members in more places around the world, and we’re continuing to grow and invest in growth.

Do you plan to add more EVs to your fleet? 

We continue to evaluate EVs. We have taken a very thoughtful and deliberate approach to looking at how EVs would work within the Zipcar car sharing model because user experience is key to our value proposition. Zipsters need to know that the vehicle they’ve reserved has adequate charge for their trip, and/or that there are numerous convenient options for charging within the radius of their trip.

Right now, the broader network of charging stations continues to expand and the charging technology itself continues to improve, both of which bode well for the long term success of EVs in car sharing programs. Earlier this year, we piloted a test of the Toyota Prius PHV in ortland, Oregon, Boston, and San Francisco, and we continue to gather intelligence and learnings from those pilots.

What do you think the next big trends in environmentally-conscious transportation will be?

I think we will continue to see a rise in collaborative consumption and a growing awareness for how these new economic models save people money, are more sustainable and efficient. We hope that Zipcar can continue to lead the way here in the U.S. and globally.

We’re really excited about the success of our partner Zimride, which is leading the way in ridesharing, as well as the advances in smart parking technologies that help reduce the time spent searching for parking, as well as the continued rise in popularity of bike sharing programs.

Is Zipcar helping make the U.S. a fitter nation?

I certainly think so. We have data to prove that if you’re a Zipster, you walk more, you bike more, and you use public transit more often than the average car owner. Member surveys indicate a real fact base behind this trend. For the past several years we’ve sponsored a “low car diet” in our major cities. The groups that participate indicate a much smarter and more fit lifestyle.

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New York-based Zeitbyte, which provides video production and distribution services for many live events, will be webcasting 88 of the shows from Lincoln Center, as well as 18 shows from Milk Studios. Those videos are being made available through three different websites — atlincolncenter.com, milkmade.com and firstcomesfashion.com — and are also accessible through iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android mobile devices. (For a detailed schedule of shows being streamed live, see “Where to Watch New York Fashion Week Online.”)

Zeitbyte CEO Gary Kahn says the startup has nine full-time employees and typically does one or two events a week, but can scale up with contract workers when needed. New York Fashion Week represents its biggest week of the year, and Kahn says Zeitbyte will have four different shows happening at once at some points. The company is handling all encoding, streaming, reporting and analytics, and has built custom players for the Lincoln Center and Milk Studios sites.

While Zeitbyte specializes in video production services, the company has built its content management system (CMS) to allow customers to webcast their own events and just use the CMS for management and distribution if they want to.

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Streetcar founders Andrew Valentine (left) and Brett Akker (right) with Zipcar CEO and Chairman Scott Griffith (center).

Zipcar’s path to the public market has become a bit more bumpy as its purchase of Streetcar, its largest rival in London, raises anti-competition concerns. The Office of Fair Trade (OFT) in the United Kingdom said Tuesday it couldn’t be confident that the acquisition wouldn’t stifle competition, so it’s referring the case to the Competition Commission for further review.

The decision came two months after Zipcar filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. to raise up to $75 million. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company plans to use the proceeds of its IPO to expand its fleet, develop new services, and pay about $5 million to shareholders of Streetcar, which Zipcar bought in spring this year. Zipcar stopped integrating its operation with Streetcar’s when it received an inquiry letter from OFT in June this year, the company said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Competition Commission has until Jan. 24, 2011 to issue its report.

Zipcar has built the largest car-sharing network in the U.S. since its inception in 2000. It’s developed an on-board device that receives reservations and allows consumers to unlock the cars they have booked online or by phone. The device, along with GPS and other tools, also let Zipcar or the fleet managers in Zipcar’s FastFleet program, keep track of the cars. The company saw 2.6 million reservations in the 12 months ending March 31 this year.

Zipcar charges an annual fee and additional rental fees, and customers can reserve cars by the hour. The company previously talked about becoming profitable this year, but its expansion plans in recent years have cost a lot of money, making profitability a goal rather than a reality so far.

Zipcar saw its annual revenue grow from $57.82 million in 2007 to $131.18 million in 2009, while its net loss shrank from $14.44 million to $4.67 million in the same period, according to its SEC filing. The company posted a net loss of $5.33 million on $33.24 million in revenue for the first three months of this year, compared with a net loss of $2.97 million on $25.76 million in revenue from the year-ago period.

Zipcar was the second largest car-sharing club in London and competed fiercely against its larger rival, Streetcar. The planned $63.4 million acquisition of Streetcar fit nicely in Zipcar’s expansion plan, but it could make it extra difficult for new comers to enter the market in the next few years, the OFT said.

“The car club model is a relatively recent phenomenon, but one that is expected to continue growing. The fact that the market is nascent means that it is particularly important to protect the competition that exists at this point,” said Amelia Fletcher, OFT senior director of mergers, in a statement. “This merger will bring together the two largest and most closely competing car clubs in London, and our investigation has indicated that, notwithstanding its much smaller size, Zipcar was a particularly strong and dynamic competitor to Streetcar. Given that we have not been able to rule out competition concerns, we are referring the merger for a fuller investigation by the Competition Commission.”

Streetcar isn’t the first acquisition for Zipcar, which bought out its largest U.S. competitor, Flexcar in Seattle, more than two years ago. Zipcar recently borrowed $70 million to expand its fleet, which has more than 7,000 vehicles in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. The company has signed up more than 400,000 customers.

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With a fleet of 7,000 vehicles, more than 400,000 members (who can rent the car by the hour or day), Zipcar relies on the web, software, data centers, GPS, mobile networks and other communication tools to provide mobility as a service. The “green” aspect of car sharing services like Zipcar stems from their potential to serve as an early testing ground for cleaner vehicles, and their capacity to help reduce vehicle ownership.

Zipcar noted in its original IPO registration that a class action lawsuit had been filed against the company alleging that certain member fees are “void, unenforceable and/or unconscionable.” While Zipcar acknowledges that other legal challenges may arise in the future, this particular storm has passed, with Zipcar winning a dismissal of the suit “in its entirety, without prejudice” last month.

At least one pothole remains unfilled in Zipcar’s road to a successful IPO and global expansion, however, thanks to a $62 million deal that has caught the eye of UK antitrust authorities. Following Zipcar’s acquisition in April of its largest competitor in the UK — the car sharing provider Streetcar — the UK’s Office of Fair Trading, or OFT, asked Zipcar to hold the two companies separately while it gathered information to determine whether it could review the acquisition.

In its latest filing, Zipcar says it has now entered an agreement with OFT that prevents it from integrating the Zipcar and Streetcar operations until the authorities complete their inquiry, potentially delaying or utterly derailing the integration. (Update: A Zipcar spokesperson emphasized to us today that the inquiry is a “very standard process in the UK.”)

Streetcar is an important tool in Zipcar’s arsenal for increasing its market share in London, a city that Zipcar anticipates could become “one of the world’s largest car sharing markets based on its commuting characteristics, financial burdens of car ownership, demographics and other factors.” But if UK authorities determine “that the transaction may result in a substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market in the United Kingdom,” then Zipcar may have to “unwind the transaction,” a move that the company says would hurt its financial results.

Zipcar has recorded net losses every year since its inception, and by the end of March 2010 it had racked up a $56.4 million deficit. The company expects to lose money again in 2010 and plans to make significant investments as part of a massive expansion effort (Zipcar currently operates in only 14 of more than 100 global metro areas and university campuses where it hopes to set up car sharing).

Already, the company stands as the heavyweight in a growing market. According to forecasts from research firm Frost & Sullivan, the number of drivers using car-sharing networks increased 117 percent between 2007 and 2009 in North America. Within five years, the firm expects to see 4.4 million people in North America and 5.5 million people in Europe sign up for car-sharing programs, more than tripling membership from 2009.

Image courtesy of Zipcar

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Today’s filing comes on the heels of Zipcar arranging to borrow $70 million under a one-year credit facility for the purchase of new cars for its U.S. fleet (through Zipcar Vehicle Financing, a wholly owned subsidiary). The IPO filing also comes about six weeks after Zipcar acquired its largest competitor in the UK (a car sharing provider called Streetcar), and more than two years after Zipcar absorbed its largest U.S. competitor: Seattle-based Flexcar, owned by AOL Co-founder Steve Case.

Zipcar (one of our 10 Greentech IPO Picks) has discussed the goal of going public since early 2008, and comments from CEO Scott Griffith last summer hinted at Zipcar hoping for an IPO sometime in 2010. The company told us in April 2009 that it expected to “cross over into profitability this year.” According to today’s filing, however, Zipcar has seen net losses each year since its inception and it expects to lose money again in 2010 (we’ll report more details from the S-1 later today).

Anticipating significant expenses to arise as part of its expansion effort (Zipcar currently operates in only 13 of more than 100 global metro areas and university campuses where it hopes to set up car sharing), the company says it does not know if its losses will continue in “2011 and beyond.” Last year, Zipcar says its revenues reached $131.2 million, up from just $13.7 million in 2005.

Zipcar’s plans for the proceeds from the offering include, among other things, repaying more than $40 million in debt, developing new services, expanding its fleet and paying some $5 million to shareholders in the recently acquired Streetcar.

Zipcar developed its fleet technology with a plan to scale it. The company’s vehicles carry some essential hardware — notably a “black box” device (a custom circuit board, processor and modem) fitted to a vehicle wind shield that allows users to unlock the car they’ve reserved. The device receives data over AT&T’s wireless network and when a user reserves a car (online or over the phone), it authorizes their card for a particular vehicle. Those devices also allow Zipcar — and now fleet managers, through Zipcar’s new FastFleet program — to remotely monitor vehicles.

Zipcar stands as the heavyweight in a growing market. According to forecasts from research firm Frost & Sullivan, the number of drivers using car-sharing networks increased 117 percent between 2007 and 2009 in North America. Within five years, the firm expects to see 4.4 million people in North America and 5.5 million people in Europe (where Zipcar hopes to expand  its presence beyond London) sign up for car-sharing programs, more than tripling membership from 2009.

The “green” aspect of a car sharing service like Zipcar stems from their potential to serve as an early testing ground for cleaner vehicles, and their capacity to help reduce vehicle ownership. “Lots of people sell or don’t buy cars as a result of our business,” Griffith said in a panel earlier this year. “Or we become their second car, their fractional second car,” since users only pay to “own” a Zipcar vehicle for a fraction of the time they’d pay to buy or lease a personal vehicle. In addition, Frost & Sullivan anticipates plug-in vehicles will make up one in every five new vehicle purchases for car-share fleets by 2016.

Photo courtesy of Zipcar

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Streetcar founders Andrew Valentine (left) and Brett Akker (right) with Zipcar CEO and Chairman Scott Griffith (center).

Zipcar isn’t the oldest car sharing network, but it is the world’s largest and it aims to eventually span across the globe — partly by acquiring competitors. In Zipcar’s latest move, on Wednesday it announced that it’s acquired the UK’s largest car sharing provider, Streetcar, in a $50 million deal. But now as Zipcar works to integrate Streetcar’s network — and potentially other networks down the road — it will face some important questions about how to bridge technology gaps between different car sharing models, and how to economically scale.

The grand vision behind Zipcar’s global expansion is for a subscriber who lives near the company’s Cambridge, Mass. headquarters, for example, to rent a car in a Barcelona or London Zipcar fleet just as easily as in their home network. That would require a seamless user experience, and will need some heavy lifting behind the scenes. Incorporating new networks like Streetcar’s will force Zipcar to decide which features and services to drop (at the risk of alienating existing users), and which ones to try and adopt or maintain.

Keeping in mind ZipCar’s goals of global domination, profitability in 2010 and an eventual IPO, the strategy comes down to rapidly expanding its fleet and user base at the lowest cost. “We don’t want to go hang a lot of new hardware on the car,” Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith explained to us in an interview last summer.

In fact the ideal vehicle for car sharing, Griffith said, would be modeled after smart phones, with an open platform that would allow Zipcar to roll new cars into its fleet with little more than a software download. Given that ideal, Zipcar seems likely to opt for streamlining its acquisitions and shaving off some of their extra gadgets and services.

Zipcar’s Tech

Zipcar developed its fleet technology with a plan to scale it. The company’s vehicles carry some essential hardware — notably a “black box” device (a custom circuit board, processor and modem) fitted to a vehicle wind shield that allows users to unlock the car they’ve reserved. The device receives data over AT&T’s wireless network and when a user reserves a car (online or over the phone), it authorizes their card for a particular vehicle. Those devices also allow Zipcar — and now fleet managers, through Zipcar’s new FastFleet program — to remotely monitor vehicles.

Streetcar runs on a different system. Like Zipcar, it lets users unlock their reserved vehicle with the swipe of a card over the windshield, or by way of an iPhone app. But Streetcar has also taken the step of equipping its vehicles with a hands-free phone for calling the company’s service center, and made it so calls to a driver’s incoming mobile phone can be diverted to the car. Streetcar also requires users to enter their PIN on a handheld terminal or on a keypad in the dash before they can start the car.

A Zipcar spokesperson today told us the company has not decided whether it will continue the hands-free phone service for the Streetcar fleet. But if Zipcar remains focused on keeping costs low as it scales, our guess is that Zipcar will phase this out of the UK fleet. It may not be worth it to alter Streetcar’s existing fleet, but as new cars roll out we’d expect them to use Zipcar’s more streamlined customization process.

Other car sharing networks that Zipcar might consider rolling into its empire in the future have additional hardware and software, too. Avancar, a Barcelona, Spain-based car sharing startup in which Zipcar took a minority stake last year, equips each vehicle in its fleet with a small computer and keypad below the rear-view mirror that allows drivers to make reservation changes and contact customer service reps when they enter a PIN, and which handles the mileage and fueling data (Zipcar has drivers manually enter odometer information at the gas pump).

One Way

Aside from the technology loaded into the vehicle itself, bringing Streetcar’s vehicles — and some 75,000 members — into the fold will also require a bridging of differences in the service model. Streetcar currently offers customers the option to request one-way trips. If users place the request at least 24 hours in advance, they can check out a car near their home, for example, and return it at the airport.

One-way rentals tend to bring inefficiency into the system, according to Ryan Chin, a PhD candidate in the Smart Cities research group at MIT (GigaOM Pro, sub. req’d). That’s primarily as a result of asymmetric trips, with an influx of people trying to go to commercial centers from residential areas around the same time.

Operators can deploy sensor technology and collect real-time data on their fleet, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Chin says the key to mitigating the redistribution issue rests largely on developing a better algorithm that would crawl transit-use data.

Zipcar, by contrast, offers only round-trip bookings — a fact that can eliminate the cost of having to redistribute vehicles until that algorithm’s perfected, but which limits the network’s potential to address the “last mile” gap in many mass transit systems (e.g. getting between the subway station and your final destination).

As Zipcar races to scoop up car sharing networks in its quest for a global presence, much of the hardware and services that are sustainable at relatively small scale could likely fall by the wayside. But Zipcar — which despite its ambitions has not matched Streetcar’s growth rate or size in the UK – could pick up more than just cars and subscribers along the way. If it’s careful not to stamp out too much of the identity of a startup that reportedly came close to breaking even in 2008 on sales of £15 million, doubled its user base in 2009 and in January predicted that it would reach 250,000 customers by 2012, then Zipcar could also pick up some much needed momentum overseas.

Photo courtesy of Zipcar

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When asked to elaborate on its ad approval process, Facebook sent the following statement via email (which isn’t much different from the one it sent Inside Facebook last week):

Our dedicated internal policy team will continue to monitor ads within apps on an ongoing basis and take action against those apps running ads that violate our policies. We are committed to maintaining an ecosystem that provides users with a trusted experience.

Facebook also declined to comment on which ad networks it has approved or disapproved so far. (Two ad networks have confirmed that they were banned, but that was before the ad guidelines were updated.) Being tight-lipped about its process is a risky move for Facebook and its platform strategy — just look at the outcry over Apple’s refusal to explain why it’s rejected certain apps from its App Store.

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