The next time you’re riding in a taxi, you might not need your phone to watch TikTok videos.
On Tuesday, ride-hailing app company Curb Mobility announced a partnership to bring TikTok user-generated content to Taxi TV, its network of more than 15,000 in-taxi screens across 65 US markets, primarily in major cities.
Curb isn’t the first digital out-of-home (DOOH) company to strike a deal like this. TikTok has had a program since 2023 called “Out of Phone” to capitalize on demand from advertisers seeking to extend their social video content into real-world environments.
In addition to Curb, TikTok has similar integrations with Loop TV, ReachTV, GSTV and Shell-owned Volta Charging.
For Curb, the arrangement is a way to “meet audiences where they were and to turn transit moments into meaningful discovery” for brands and creators, said Lizclaire Tamam, Curb’s director of marketing and media.
Meanwhile, the deal extends TikTok’s reach to new audiences and new consumer touch points, said Dan Page, TikTok’s global head of partnerships for new screens. “We’re in airports and out-of-home, and we’ve been in-flight and on TV,” he said. “This adds to our arsenal of screens.”
Curating content in cabs (with or without coffee)
Curb’s Taxi TV displays a loop of interactive content and ads whenever a passenger enters a cab in its network. The network only includes medallion-equipped taxis and no rideshare vehicles, Tamam said.
To avoid wasted impressions, content doesn’t play when no passengers are present in a cab. Curb claims its network generates 184 million monthly impressions, with about 50% of impressions coming from Gen Z and millennial audiences.
Now, Taxi TV’s content loop will also feature a mix of lifestyle videos from TikTok, such as decorating and recipe tips, as well as light news commentary, such as UGC coverage of sporting events taking place in a given geographic area.
The content mix will be curated by TikTok so as to meet the platform’s brand safety standards, Page said.
But there won’t be “any singing or dancing, because that’s not what TikTok is anymore,” he added. “What you’ll see is diverse content that can entertain and educate existing and new users.”
Monetizing a captive audience
There will be ads, though.
Advertisers can buy interstitial ad inventory directly from TikTok with the goal of reaching a set number of impressions, Page said.
Both companies declined to explain how they’ll split the ad revenue from these direct deals. According to Page, the TikTok creators whose content is featured on Taxi TV will not be compensated directly with a share of ad revenue, but rather with exposure to Taxi TV’s audiences.
TikTok doesn’t target the ads contextually to the content, Page added, but brands can use Taxi TV inventory to extend the reach of their on-platform TikTok campaigns.
Curb, however, does make some effort to curate ads to ensure they’re aligned with content that appears immediately before or after an ad slot, Tamam said. Plus, through the use of the company’s Curb Journey Connect mobile ad solution, the ad experience on Curb’s mobile app can change based on which ads riders saw on Taxi TV.
Curb also has partnerships with CTV platforms to include Taxi TV as audience extension for CTV ad buys, Tamam said, although TikTok inventory won’t be included.
As far as TikTok is concerned, “we’re not selling CTV,” Page said. “We don’t even have a CTV product anymore.”
Measuring impact
Even so, the back of a taxi is arguably a lean-back experience, albeit often a brief one (unless there’s traffic).
Curb believes the TikTok integration will improve audience engagement and ad performance across its network, Tamam said. The company pointed to recent research by CreatorIQ in which 82% of agencies said influencer-led content delivers higher ROI than traditional advertising, making it a top-performing content type across both digital and OOH.
TikTok and Curb will handle measurement for direct-sold campaigns without any third parties, Tamam said. However, Curb will work closely with advertisers to design bespoke measurement approaches based on whether a brand is looking to drive awareness or performance KPIs.
Taxi TV ads also include interactive elements, like QR codes, and Curb gets access to signals from the screens themselves, such as whether riders turn down the volume when ads are playing.
Meanwhile, Curb can use its app to track whether ads are increasing foot traffic to physical stores or driving visits to advertiser landing pages. Curb’s in-app mobile ads have an average click-through rate of 3% to 4%, Tamam said.
Ads placed alongside TikTok’s content in cabs should be equally as engaging, said Taman, who added that Curb is optimistic about the partnership heading into the busy Q4 season.
That optimism persists despite TikTok’s complicated legal situation in the US.
Although Congress passed a law last year mandating that TikTok be sold to a US-based owner or else be banned in the country, President Trump’s administration has thus far avoided enforcing that law. And the existence of the law hasn’t stopped companies like Curb from partnering with TikTok.
“Regardless of what happens, there’s a lot of interest from clients,” Tamam said when asked about the uncertainty around TikTok’s viability in the US. “We’re operating full steam ahead, and I can’t really comment on what the future holds.”
Correction 7/30/25: The original story said Curb claims its Taxi TV network generates 184 billion monthly impressions. Curb clarified that its network generates 184 million monthly impressions.
