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Lyft co-founder: We're moving fast

Lyft co-founder: Why more people are choosing us

Ride-sharing app Lyft has made a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the competition over the past few months, its co-founder told CNBC, who said its aggressive approach appears to be working.

"Recently we hit over a million unique passengers every week. We hit a billion dollar run rate in October of last year and raised a billion dollars. We're moving quite fast," said John Zimmer on CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Monday.

"We're the fastest growing ride-share company in the United States right now," the company's co-founder added. "I think the recent partnership with General Motors as well as a few other partnerships gives us advantages others don't have. "

Despite this growth, Zimmer said the company will remain focused on the U.S. market, rather than expanding to other countries like its main competitor, Uber. After obtaining a new round of funding, Uber's Chinese arm plans to increase its coverage to 37 cities in the coming months.

Lyft, however, believes there is more than enough opportunity in the U.S. domestic market, where demographics and car buying trends remain favorable to the company, Zimmer told CNBC.

"In the United States alone, $2 trillion is spent every year on car ownership. There's a massive opportunity as more and more millennials and others in cities switch over from car ownership to transportation as a service," he said.

"They are picking Lyft and we want to stay focused on that big opportunity," Zimmer added.

'Local focus, big market'

Adel Al Sayed, executive director of Kingdom Holding Company who is an investor in the company, agreed with the company's strategy.

"For the time being, we like the local focus because the local market itself is huge. We would like to see Lyft perfect that market before venturing outside," Al Sayed told CNBC in a joint interview.

When he looked at Lyft's business model, Al Sayed added that he was particularly impressed with the company's approach, growth metrics, and quality of service.

Zimmer said that quality of service pushes Lyft ahead of its competition, if price and estimated time of arrival of drivers are comparable between on-demand car services.

"Lyft treats people better than competition. So whether that's drivers or passengers, that goes into the car experience," said Zimmer. "That's why more and more people are choosing Lyft."