Didi’s “Honghu” Project Revealed, Attracts 90 Online Ride-Hailing Firms

Chinese ride-hailing platform Didi’s internal project “Honghu” has now developed at least 50 driver-side apps and has connected to nearly 90 online ride-hailing companies, iFeng reported on Thursday.

In June 2021, Didi carried out a $4.4 billion public listing in the United States. Just days later, Chinese regulators launched a security review of the firm and removed its 25 apps from domestic app stores.

Huaxiaozhu, an independent ride-hailing brand launched by Didi in 2020, is one of the few applications that has not been affected by the security review. In the past four months, impacted by various COVID-19 outbreaks in China and other factors, the order volume of online ride-hailing platforms has generally declined, while Huaxiaozhu has witnessed an order increase. According to the data from the Ministry of Transport for January to April, the monthly growth rates of Huaxiaozhu’s orders were 4.4%, -26.8%, 3.1% and 1.4% respectively.

Huaxiaozhu provided the production and research for the project called “Honghu.” At present, “Honghu” has attracted nearly 90 online car-hailing companies to join.

Many members of the Honghu project said that the layoffs of Didi after China’s Spring Festival earlier this year basically did not affect Huaxiaozhu’s team, because almost half of its staff members were transferred to join the Honghu project. Honghu has incubated at least 50 driver-side apps, and this number continues to increase.

These driver-side apps have been provided by Huaxiaozhu, but there are no passenger-side apps. Passengers can only place orders through Huaxiaozhu and Didi.

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In the past year, the order compliance rate of Huaxiaozhu ranked last almost every month, at only about 35%. The mixed access of third-party platforms may further lower its compliance rate and further affect the brand impression of Huaxiaozhu and Didi.