On the afternoon of August 24, a young woman named Zhao in eastern Zhejiang province took a ride with Didi’s Hitch ride-share service. She never reached her destination. After texting “help” to a friend mid-ride, her phone was switched off and she went missing. On August 26, police arrested her Didi driver, who admitted to tying her hands, raping her, stabbing her, and then pushing her off a cliff.
The murder was headline news in China, in part because of its similarity to another Didi-related killing in May, in which the body of a young woman who disappeared while taking a Didi Hitch ride was found half-naked and stabbed to death in Zhengzhou.
The story gathered more steam when it emerged that Didi had received a report about August’s murderous driver the day prior to the killing. A female passenger had told Didi that the driver insisted she sit close to him, took her along a remote route, and then followed her when she got out of the car. Didi’s customer service representatives promised to follow up on her report within a few hours, but they didn’t. The following day, the same driver murdered Zhao during her Didi trip.
Across China, the user response has been angry. A #DeleteDidi movement emerged on social media site Weibo, and it appears to be gathering steam. By the morning of September 6, Didi’s app has plunged to its to its lowest position in China’s iOS App Store in three months (5th in travel; 86th overall), according to App Annie data.
Prior to the latest murder, Didi’s app was typically first in travel and hovered around 10th in the overall charts, so its decline has been precipitous.
Didi’s Jean Liu (right), pictured with Apple’s Tim Cook in Beijing / Photo credit: Tim Cook’s Twitter.
The app saw a similar drop following the first murder and ultimately recovered, but its current dip is already a few spots lower (the plunge last May never reached below 73rd on the overall App Store charts) and lasted longer.
A new rival makes little impact
In response to the uproar, Didi has suspended its Hitch service – which it also did in May. But this time, it has also temporarily suspended night-time (11 p.m. to 5 a.m.) services for a variety of other Didi products including Didi Select, Uber China, and taxi bookings. The service suspension will last through September 15, by which point Didi says it will have rolled out an updated app with improved security features that include a phone-the-police SOS button.
In a highly apologetic public statement, the company also made reference to a broader shift in its strategic outlook. “Didi will stop using scale and growth as our measurement of success. We shall prioritize safety as the single most important performance indicator,” it stated. “Our organization and resources will be fully shifted towards building strong safety and customer service systems.”
Tech in Asia got the same statement after contacting Didi. In addition, the company said it plans to deepen its collaborative efforts and technological integrations with law enforcement.
But is the app at real risk of losing its seat at the head of the ride-hailing table? It seems unlikely. Well-funded competitor Meituan Dianping – owner of Mobike – launched its ride-hailing service earlier this year, but it’s limited in scope, with ongoing trials in two cities.
Inside a Meituan car / Photo credit: LanjingTMT
In filings for its upcoming IPO, Meituan said it had no immediate plans to expand the pilot ride-hail programs beyond Shanghai and Nanjing.
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