Every reporter: Zhao Wenqi Every editor: Wang Lina
As a new way of modern shared travel, while ride-hailing brings convenience to passengers, regulatory authorities and travel platforms have never stopped discussing its operating rules.
On December 8, news on the website of the Ministry of Transport showed that on the 7th, the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on Collaborative Supervision of New Transport Business Forms organized reminder interviews with ride-hailing platform companies such as Dida and Hello. The reminder points out that the media have recently reported many issues related to the products of ride-hailing platform companies such as Dida and Hello. The main reason is that the "nearby order" function deviates from the nature of ride-hailing, and is suspected of engaging in illegal online ride-hailing business in the name of ride-hailing. User avatars show gender, There are potential safety risks in developing long-distance intercity services.
Image source: Ministry of Transport website
In response to this, the two companies interviewed, Dida and Hello, also responded to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" respectively on December 8.
Dida Travel stated that it has revised the "Nearby Orders" function to a "Temporary Route" function that can more accurately reflect the essential characteristics of hitchhiking, allowing car owners who are "temporarily out" to publish travel information in advance through business districts based on their own travel needs. , Quickly match passengers on the way.
At the same time, Dida Chuxing stated that "temporary routes" and "frequently used routes" are jointly subject to the platform's daily number of orders and the shared ride price. The shared ride price is a fixed price of about 50% of the local commercial operating vehicle price. "In On the Dida platform, no ride-hailing owner can achieve profit-making purposes." Dida Travel emphasized.
At the same time, Hello Travel responded to the "Daily Economic News" reporter that it had immediately checked and actively started optimization related actions for some products, and the optimized products will be launched in the near future.
It is worth mentioning that the ride-hailing business was once a battleground for travel platform strategists. After the two vicious incidents of Didi in 2018, the ride-hailing business across the country entered a stage of reshuffling and adjustment, resulting in the emergence of ride-hailing services including Didi, Didi, Hello, new ride-along players. As a new business format, platforms and regulatory authorities have been exploring the regulatory rules for ride-hailing.
Just on November 20, the official WeChat account of the Ministry of Transport reiterated the four compliance requirements of Hitchhiking in response to a netizen’s question: First, travel information should be released in advance based on the owner’s own travel needs; second, travel information should be released in advance; People with the same travel route choose to ride in shared vehicles; third, it is not for profit, sharing part of the travel costs or helping each other for free; fourth, there should be a certain limit on the number of shared rides per vehicle per day.
At that time, Dida Chuxing responded that the relevant reply from the Ministry of Transport’s official website showed that there was a big difference between legal ride-hailing and online car-hailing commercial passenger transport services, and no relevant online car-hailing license was required. However, Dida will always adhere to the essential characteristics of ride-hailing and make ride-hailing a real ride-hailing service, and will not turn ride-hailing rides into cheap online ride-hailing services. Past industry experience shows that illegal operations in the name of free rides will inevitably lead to systemic security risks.
In fact, the issue of ride-hailing compliance has always been the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of travel platforms. As early as October this year, Dida officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first shared travel company in China. However, as the main business of Dida Chuxing, while ride-hailing brings profits, its compliance issues have also become one of the main sources of risks for future operations.
Dida Travel prospectus data shows that Dida’s operating income in 2019 was 581 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 391.5%, and its adjusted net profit was 172 million yuan. In addition, Dida ranks first in China's ride-hailing market, with a market share of 66.5% in 2019. In 2019, the GTV (platform transaction volume) of Dida platform reached 11 billion yuan, of which the ride-hailing business was 8.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 347.4%. Chen Liteng, a life service e-commerce analyst at the
E-commerce Research Center, once told a reporter from the Daily Economic News that currently relevant laws and regulations are more applicable to online ride-hailing services, and there are no complete and comprehensive laws and regulations for the ride-hailing business. As regulatory authorities gradually pay more attention to the supervision of ride-hailing, related businesses will still be uncertain in the future, and companies may also face large compliance costs.
Dida Travel also mentioned in the prospectus that China's ride-hailing market may face challenges arising from, among other things, other travel options, relevant regulatory regulations and restrictions, and security and privacy issues. Therefore, China's ride-hailing platform cannot be guaranteed. There will be no downturns and recessions. At the same time, relevant laws and regulations may evolve rapidly, which may significantly increase compliance costs related to platform business operations.
Daily Economic News
