Beijing tells Didi Kuaidi its private car services are illegal

It seems barely a day passes without trouble cropping up somewhere in China for one of the country’s taxi apps. Yesterday it was Uber, whose UberGreen initiative has been ordered shut down in Wuhan. Today it’s Didi Kuaidi, which has been told by Beijing authorities that two of its private car services are illegal.

According to China’s Lawcourt Evening News, municipal transportation authorities and transit police authorities met with Didi on Tuesday to inform the company that its “Didi Express” and “Didi Zhuanche” services are illegal. Both services involve allowing private car owners to accept fares for driving passengers around, which the Beijing authorities say is not permitted. Didi Kuaidi was reportedly told that it has already been caught breaking this law 161 times in Beijing this year.

A Didi spokesperson told the Lawcourt Evening News that the company will self-examine and reform, as well as work more closely together with the local government. Didi had just begun a promotion that allowed riders in Beijing, among other cities, to use its Didi Express service for free over short distances; it is not clear how that promotion will be affected.

The problem in Beijing is the same one Didi and apps like it have been encountering in municipalities all over China: China’s government does not want private cars operating as taxis. And unfortunately for private-car apps, its position on this seems pretty firm. In March Chinese minister of transport Yang Chuanming was asked if China would ever permit private cars to operate commercially, and his reply was quite clear: “Never.”

That doesn’t mean there’s no hope for private-car ridesharing apps: the haphazard enforcement of these laws across China indicates that authorities may not be fully decided yet how they’re going to proceed. But authorities in the capital ordering Didi Kuaidi to shape up probably isn’t a great sign.