With the rise of mobile commerce and instantaneous service at our fingertips, car-hailing apps have become a daily necessity. For most expats, Uber dominates the trade, but the company is actually losing over USD1 billion a year to compete on the mainland and holds less than 20 percent of the market share. Instead, Didi Chuxing (also known as Didi Kuaidi) – the miracle app born from a deal between e-commerce rivals Tencent and Alibaba – claims an 80 percent share of active users in 400 cities across China. Below, we’ve compared the features, fees and insurance coverage of each app as of April 2016.
How to Use Didi Chuxing
Add Didi Chuxing’s official WeChat (dididachegf) or access via Alipay’s app (the Didi Chuxing app requires a Chinese ID card to set up mobile payment options).
Agree to share your location (分享位置) and select “I want to hail a cab” (我要打车).
Choose your ride: carpool (顺风车), private car (快车), cab (出租车), luxury car (专车), designated driver (代驾) or test-drive (试驾).
If you want to reserve a taxi for a specific time, select “reserve cab” (预约出租车) and choose a date and time.
Copy the address (in Chinese) of your destination and paste into the end location box (我要去哪儿).
Hit the orange “呼叫” call button and wait for a response!
Runners-up
Ru Yue
This state-sponsored app was recently purchased by transport authorities in Guangzhou to compete against the ‘illegal’ services of Uber and Didi Chuxing. Ru Yue boasts veteran cab drivers approved by the government, but so far, only riders with a Chinese ID card can set up mobile payment.
Lyft
After partnering with Didi Chuxing in December of last year, Lyft announced its users would be able to access Didi rides via the Lyft app in China by this summer. The reverse will also be true – Didi Chuxing users can call a Lyft car when visiting the US.
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