Want to build taxi booking app like Didi Chuxing for your taxi booking service business? Know Why is the China’s Uber?

From the day Uber was launched, its popularity grew at a fast rate. Why? It spanned across 633 regions and more than 78 countries and reached almost every nook and corner of the whole world. The year 2018 has seen more than 50 million riders enjoying Uber’s world-class functionalities. According to the reports in Statista, Uber’s global net revenue is 7.5 billion U.S. dollars.

It does not come as a surprise why a number of other online cab aggregators are relying on entrepreneurs who want to start their taxi booking business. But, before you need to have a thorough knowledge of various apps like Uber and their business models.

Didi Chuxing is called the Uber of China and is an inspiration for the startups who wish to enter the taxi booking app venture. Let’s study in detail about the workflow, revenue model and estimate required to develop an Uber-like app or an app like Didi.

The company Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is a Chinese transportation company and a giant in the ride-hailing sector. The company is headquartered in Beijing. It is active in China as a taxi hailing, private car-hailing, social ride-sharing, bike sharing, and food delivery service provider for the people of China.

The company was formed by the merger of two rival firms Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. In 2017, Didi became the 3rd most valued startup company in the world and was valued at the US $4 billion. The company has a record of carrying 30 million rides per day.

Didi developed its English version in the year 2017 and started providing ride-hailing services under the brand called 99.

Why Didi’s Taxi Booking app is very popular in China?

Story behind Didi-rider

The CEO, Cheng Wei founded Didi Dache. He was inspired to create his own taxi hailing company as he found it was very difficult to catch cabs in China during rush hours. He even missed several flights because he could not hail a cab in time.

The app Didi Dache which meant beep beep call a taxi in English. The first version of Didi-rider allowed people to book a taxi immediately and later the app also allowed to book taxis for the next day.

The company had more than 55% of customers who used their smartphones to book taxis. However, due to the rivalry, both Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache incurred losses. In February 2015, the Didi Dache merges with Kuaidi Dache. The major competitors of in the year 2015 for Didi Dache were Yidao Yongche and Uber. So, they wanted to make themselves stand out in the competition by introducing features like the ability to carpool, hire premium cars, hire designated drivers and use a special service for passengers with disabilities. As reported by Caixin, the company had 80.2% of market share in the car hire service. Later the company also invested in Grabtaxi, which is a taxi booking app in Southeast Asia.

Locations

Didi is currently active in Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, and Mexico.

Here is a graph showing the usage rank of Didi-Rider in Google Play store under all categories.

Below is a graph showing the ranking of Didi-rider in the travel category

Didi VS Uber

In the year 2013, Uber entered the Chinese ride-hailing market and lost $2 billion dollars while they were trying to compete with Didi Dache and Kuai di Dache. However, Didi announced in 2016 that they would acquire Uber China. The acquisition was valued at $35 billion dollars and with this, Cheng Wei also became a board member of Uber.

Recent Development

With the Softbank funding of $6 billion dollars in the year 2017, Didi announced closing a new financing round of $5.5 billion dollars to invest in AI-based technologies. This made the company worth more than $50 billion. They raised $4 billion to challenge Uber with their new Artificial Intelligence Technologies. Didi also took over Uber in Southeast Asia with more and more investment in Grab.

However, in an unfortunate incident of mugging, rape and murder case of a woman by the driver, Didi Chuxing officially suspended the Hitch services. Didi is now reforming its safety standards by reviewing their business model. They also announced an investment of $20 million in customer service even after incurring heavy losses.

The CEO, Cheng Wei introduced new rules for the safety of the passengers including a training program for the drivers and a tough verification.

But if you are looking for a startup venture in the taxi booking app, including only a few safety measures are not enough. If you wish to keep your passengers loyal, having complete safety in and out of your service is recommended.

Here is a chart for the cost of taxi booking app development with the estimate for basic features:

 

Along with these features, you can also include some safety features into your app which can make your passengers feel safe while riding with you. We can design an app with a lot of safety features for your passengers.

Having an app with GPS tracker and SOS button can ensure the safety of your passengers. Along with the verification of drivers, you can allow your passengers to share their ride with their family or friends.

Our talented team of developers can design an app with amazing safety features which can make your ride-hailing service the safest one and you can avoid many of the unwanted hazards happening. We can design a taxi booking app powered by IoT and AI-based technologies which can make your service fully secure. The passenger will be secure physically and the payment integration gateway that we include can also provide the passengers’ safety for their money.

Click below to get a free demo and details about the taxi booking app development.