On a winter day in 2013, I stood in the wind and waved to every taxi driving passed me. Even with a vacant sign, none of the them stopped for me. That’s because they were heading to pick up passengers, who had requested ride with Didi Dache.
Without any luck, I launched Didi from my WeChat app and tried to request a ride. I stared at my phone for three minutes, and I saw the app notified 200+ drivers nearby, but no one responded. Yeah, because I needed to enter my destination, and smart drivers wouldn’t pick my 10RMB (US$1.5) order. It’s just not a good deal.
App of Didi Dache. LEFT: Enter Destination; CENTER: The app has sent your request to 42 drivers nearby; RIGHT: Your taxi is 2.1 km away, and it will arrive in about 4 minutes.
But what I didn’t know was that the ride-hailing market in China was about to go through a huge transformation, and it all began with Uber placing several limousines in the Central Business Districts (CBDs) in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2013. The ride-hailing market that were once familiar would never come back.
In this series of why Uber survives and thrives in China, I’m going to explore different stages of the heating ride-hailing battle, discuss how Uber compete with local rivals, how they navigate through policies and regulations, how they attract customers and get them hooked, and what we can learn from Uber’s impressive performance as a localized company.
Part 1: The art of war — at the right time, in the right place, with the right people
Part 2: Head-on competition with local rivals — a 2-year long battle that transformed China’s ride-hailing business
Part 3: Growth hacking — magic of localization and crossover marketing
China, a huge yet different market
Before we dive in, let’s get an overview of China’s car-hailing market.
In 2014, for every 1000 people, there are 113 cars in China, while the number reached 809 in United States in 2011. Even with efficient public transport systems, there still persists an extremely high demand in business or leisure rides. From this perspective, China’s ride-hailing market is significant and full of potential. Uber saw the big pie, and came for it.
It was common that taxi drivers had one phone for Didi and another one for Kuaidi, the largest rival for Didi back in 2014. Credit: Bloomberg
China is so different from other places. Just as Uber’s founder and CEO Travis Kalanick says about Uber’s expansion in China:
Right time
Right place
Right people
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