Published: 2:00pm, 4 Nov, 2015 Updated: 7:02pm, 4 Nov, 2015
Last night the South China Morning Post declared that Chinese Uber-rival, Didi Kuaidi, can no longer be considered a taxi app, as demand for rides in private cars on its platform now dwarf the demand for traditional taxis. “[Didi]… is no longer a taxi app,” declared Mr. Zhu, Didi’s Vice-President of strategy at an industry conference yesterday. “Our biggest business is now private cars,” he said, adding that the company delivers just 2 million rides a day, 4 million of which are private-car rides compared to 7 million taxi journeys. The company has diversified considerably since its taxi service beginnings, adding services such as private cars, chauffeur services, carpooling and bus routes for commuters. Mr. Zhu also confirmed that Didi has recently embarked on a considerable cost-cutting strategy: ““We spend a quarter of what our competitor is spending here … More money will be spent on innovation [at Didi],” he said, in what is almost certainly a reference to Uber.