Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by larrysalibra on Friday September 07, 2018 @12:56PM (#17935801)

Didi significantly reduced subsidies after Uber left the market - in Shenzhen at least this means prices aren't any better than taxis. It's usually faster to get a taxi in most places and times of the day than waiting the 3-5 minutes for your Didi to arrive. Back when it was a lot cheaper to Didi, people would wait a couple minutes to save 50%, but if the price is the same, they take what's faster.

On top of this there's additional competition from the huge numbers of people using bike sharing like Mobike or Ofo - which not only taking a bike much cheaper, but it's often faster because you avoid traffic jams.

Amazing how much the market has changed in such a short time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by half0wl on Friday September 07, 2018 @09:10PM (#17938816)

Slightly related - it's the same situation in Singapore when GrabTaxi "merged" with Uber.

After Uber pulled out, Grab stopped handing out promotion codes that would save you anywhere from $2-5 bucks per trip (or occasionally more), and they slashed the rate you earn reward points for every dollar spent by ~13-16 times.

Grab became the market, quite literally. It's such a drastic change in just a matter of weeks, and what makes it worse is that there is practically no competition in the ride-hailing scene over here (for now, at least, and hopefully).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by inawarminister on Saturday September 08, 2018 @02:31AM (#17939744)

Gojek haven't tried to penetrate the SG market huh?

They're fighting Grab in Thailand and Philippines for now I think.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by half0wl on Sunday September 09, 2018 @06:59AM (#17945335)

They confirmed they're launching in SG a couple of months back, but there has been no further news yet :-/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by toomuchtodo on Friday September 07, 2018 @09:59PM (#17938972)

Are there no taxis in Singapore?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by half0wl on Sunday September 09, 2018 @06:54AM (#17945319)

I was referring to ride-hailing _apps_ specifically, my bad.

Anecdotally, I don't have good experiences with taxis here, and sometimes they're more expensive than Grab.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by freddie_mercury on Friday September 07, 2018 @10:42PM (#17939098)

The same thing happened here in Vietnam when (as elsewhere in SE Asia) Uber pulled out leaving Grab as the only provider. Prices went up, service quality went down, and lots of people I know went back to using taxis. Go-Jek (aka Go-Viet) recently expanded and entered the market so maybe that will spur more subsidies again.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by mabbo on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:17PM (#17936462)

I'm surprised that with Uber leaving the market, Didi didn't get better at response times. Surely all those Uber drivers would have switched to Didi, increasing the number of drivers. And with prices rising, drivers would get paid more money.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by jedberg on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:26PM (#17936523)

They were probably already driving for Uber too, just like most people in SF drive both Uber and Lyft.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by vm on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:17PM (#17935977)

Thanks for sharing. Important context regarding Uber’s pivot into all forms of transit (bike, scooter, public transit). They must see the same writing on the wall.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by trimbo on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:02PM (#17936343)

> Important context regarding Uber’s pivot into all forms of transit

And self-driving cars, flying cars, delivering food, freight, a credit card. Probably more I can't think of.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by baby on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:05PM (#17936376)

Tbf in the US it's like every single company has a credit card they want to sell you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by stephengillie on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:17PM (#17936458)

Toyota has committed $500B to a partnership with Uber on self driving cars.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17853248

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by trimbo on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:29PM (#17936553)

I think you mean $500M

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by rak111esh on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:59PM (#17936319)

And here I am just waited 25 minutes to get my uber home from work. Normally it takes 15 minutes, today 2 drivers cancelled.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Beleaguered Didi Is Said to Lose $585M in Just Six Months by mkolodny on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:22PM (#17936491)

What city/town are you in? In SF I usually get UberX's in < 3 minutes, and pools in ~5 minutes.

[ Parent | on HN ]