Didi Chuxing drivers and passengers are priced separately, experts： more exploration should be done on services
Beijing Central Broadcasting Network, August 21 news (reporter Liu Le, Ma Chuang) According to the Voice of China’s "News Vertical" report, after the announcement of the acquisition of Uber China, the recent news about Didi Chuxing’s price increase, Didi driver rewards and subsidies has attracted widespread attention. On the 18th, Didi Chuxing announced that the company will make major adjustments to the pricing methods of Didi Express and Didi Special Car, and implement separate pricing for drivers and passengers.
Although the relevant person in charge of Didi Chuxing said that after this adjustment, car owners can see their income more intuitively and clearly. After the adjustment, the income of car owners has not changed compared with before, and even the income of some urban car owners will increase by about 10%. So how do car owners and passengers actually feel? Is this adjustment to make prices more open and transparent, or is it for the upcoming profit period?
Didi said that before the company charged 20% of the driver’s management fee, but after this adjustment, the price of passengers taking a taxi did not increase, but the driver’s billing method has undergone specific changes. From the previous deduction of 20% of the management fee, it directly became a service fee of 1.44 yuan per kilometer, a time-consuming fee of 0.4 yuan per kilometer, and no other fees. The reporter used the Didi platform to call a fast car experience. In the past, after a 5-kilometer journey about the express, the estimated price displayed was around 11 yuan. In the past few days, the same time period and mileage, the estimated price was around 15 yuan, and the actual cost after getting off the car has also increased significantly compared with before. At the same time, in recent times, the preferential strength of Didi coupons has also become significantly smaller. Didi’s pricing adjustment this time is mainly on the driver side. How do drivers feel?
Didi driver: I don’t know what to give you, we dropped it.
Reporter: Down? Didn’t you say it went up for you?
Didi driver: It has not gone up. The guaranteed minimum price used to be 10 yuan, but now it is 8 yuan. Before, it was 1 yuan and 8 yuan for running a kilometer, but now it is 1 yuan and 4 cents. The time fee used to be 5 cents a minute, but now it is 4 cents. The number of extra kilometers used to be more than 8 cents, and now it is more than 6 cents. It has dropped compared with before, but after the drop, the platform commission has decreased. It used to be 20%, but now it is 1.77%. I haven’t verified it yet.
According to a number of media surveys, Didi Chuxing and Uber China’s two major online ride-hailing platforms have indeed experienced different price increases in different cities. That is to say, the current intuitive feeling is that after the adjustment, passengers spend more and drivers earn less. Moreover, drivers said that the number of orders received after the adjustment has also been affected.
Driver: I only pulled 9 orders since I came out in the morning, and there is no big job. They are all small orders, not large orders. In the past, I could encounter a few a day for 70 or 80 yuan.
Reporter: After this revision?
Driver: Now there are very few such large orders.
The reporter contacted the person in charge of Didi to inquire about the relevant situation, but has not received any response yet. In relevant reports, Didi has responded many times. Among them, for the cancellation of the 20% commission for each order charged by the driver side, Didi said that it was a misunderstanding by some media. The platform’s commission and calculation method for drivers have not changed, but the display method has changed. Before, the driver side displayed the running water, that is, the fee paid by the passenger, but after the implementation of the new pricing method, the driver side shows the actual income of the driver after deducting the commission. Internet expert Wang Yue said that the current competition landscape is different, and it is inevitable for Didi to explore the feasibility of investment recovery to a certain extent. "After all, this service cannot be free forever. From a subjective and objective perspective, it needs to take this step. The key is to see if they can find a relative balance, so that both users and drivers can get a balance of interests. "
In fact, after the merger of Didi and Uber, passengers are worried that the price of online car-hailing will become higher and higher. Online car-hailing drivers are also worried that the rewards for drivers will become less and less, but these concerns have not stopped Didi’s price adjustment. Industry analysts have analyzed that the reason why Didi Taxi adjusts the price of drivers at this time is on the surface to give drivers a clearer and more transparent calculation method. In fact, it is through data to bind drivers and lay out for the next price increase. This is still denied by Didi.
Wang Yue, an internet expert, believes that in addition to adjusting the charging price, Didi should focus on the service in the future. "In addition to making certain adjustments in fees and prices, as a third-party internet company with a relatively leading market orientation, they should do more exploration in services, rather than just stay on price changes. Strive to make more tricks in services, such as launching corresponding services for groups of different identities, which may be what they should focus on when seeking the next stage of development after occupying market share."
According to the data, in China’s private car market, Didi Chuxing has a 70% share, and Uber China has a 17% share. After the merger of Didi and Uber, it will occupy more than 87% of the Chinese private car market, while in the more subdivided express car market, the market share is close to 100%. With such a large market share, it is not difficult to imagine whether Didi will gradually develop various drawbacks of monopolistic operation in the future. Wang Yue believes that it is not so simple. "At first, it can be priced to a certain extent because of its market position. But with the security and extension of the market economy, it has to make some adjustments. In fact, the products are enriched and the functions are diversified, and its revenue scale and volume will be larger. If we just focus on the price, it will definitely be relatively easy in the early stage, but it will definitely not last, and it will not be good for them to consolidate their market share, because whether it is the offline industry or the online Internet market, they can all use the free routine to squeeze out the hegemony it has. "