Chinese Online Ride-Hailing Orders See Annual Decrease of 25 Million
Data released Wednesday by the Chinese ride-hailing regulatory information website showed that domestic platforms received 704.203 million individual ride orders in January, up 5.3% from the previous month, but less than the 730 million orders recorded in January 2021.
10 of the 17 online car-hailing platforms included in the list saw a month-on-month increase in order volume, while the other seven platforms showed a decline. Among them, orders of Shenzhou Zhuanche plummeted by 34.4%, Sunshine Travel’s orders decreased by 21.9% and Tuotuo Exing’s orders decreased by 20.3%.
Among the platforms with an increased order volume in January, Blue Ave’s orders skyrocketed by 70.9%, while those of Zhaozhao Chuxing, Saic Mobility and Xiehua Chuxing increased by 69.8%, 37.6% and 32.5%, respectively.
Analysts contend that the current growth of order volume is closely related to the promotional activities carried out by these platforms. For example, according to their app’s latest version, newly registered users of Saicmobility are provided with a gift coupon worth 100 yuan ($50.80).
This practice is similar to a previous promotional activity carried out by another platform, Meituan Dache. In December last year, the firm pushed a reward reading, “after inviting new drivers to join the platform, every newly registered driver equals 58 yuan in cash,” in a bid to increase its order volume.
Starting from December of 2021, China’s ride-hailing regulatory information platform not only publishes reports including monthly online car-hailing operations data, but also summarizes the compliance situation of the current month.
According to the official data, in January, there were 17 Chinese platforms with orders exceeding 300,000. The compliance rate of Saicmobility’s orders was 93.1% – still ranking first – while that of Huaxiaozhu Chuxing held at 31.6%.
In January, the top three platforms in terms of order compliance rate growth were Shouyue Qiche, Jishi Yongche and Wanshun Car-Hailing. In January, the compliance rate of DiDi Global Inc. was 45.9%, while that of Meituan Dache stood at 51.6%, having increased.
Among the major central cities, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and 11 other cities all have order compliance rates above 80%.
As of January 31, 2022, a total of 260 domestic companies have obtained business licenses for online car-hailing services, an increase of two from the previous month, while a total of 3.988 million drivers’ online car-hailing licenses and 1.583 million vehicle transport licenses were issued in various places, up 1.0% and 1.6% month-on-month, respectively.
SEE ALSO: Beijing Publicizes More Supervision of Digital Ride-Hailing Industry
The supervision of platforms by regulatory authorities in China is still strengthening. On February 14, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as well as other eight departments jointly issued a notice regarding the streamlining and expansion of regulatory oversight on the industry.
