Meituan Dianping to halt ride-hailing expansion in China amid crisis at industry leader Didi
The Beijing-based company, which is pursuing up to a US$4.4 billion listing in Hong Kong, currently offers ride-hailing services in Nanjing and Shanghai
Meituan Dianping, operator of the world’s largest on-demand food delivery service, said it aims to halt further expansion into China’s ride-hailing market, as industry leader Didi Chuxing remains gripped by a safety crisis.
“We regularly evaluate the synergistic value car-hailing services could bring to our platform,” Meituan said in the updated prospectus it filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday. “Based on current market dynamics, we do not expect to further expand this service.”
Beijing-based Meituan started its pilot ride-hailing operations in two mainland cities, Shanghai and Nanjing, earlier this year. The company had planned to initially offer ride-hailing services in at least five cities. It recorded daily active users of around 18,000 on August 31, according to Chinese data services provider Aurora Mobile.
The change in strategy for Meituan, which is pursuing up to a US$4.4 billion listing in Hong Kong, has come after the deaths of two young women passengers on Didi’s carpool-like Hitch service within the space of three months.
Didi founder Cheng Wei and president Jean Liu Qing issued a mea culpa last week for the company’s role in the deaths, saying that “breathless expansion” had caused the start-up to lose sight of its original goal of improving transport.