China ride-hailing war seen erupting again with new challenger to Didi
World’s No 4 unicorn Meituan to launch ride-hailing services in multiple mainland Chinese cities in direct competition with market giant Didi Chuxing
Meituan Dianping, one of China’s most valuable private tech firms, is gearing up to challenge the monopoly of ride hailing giant Didi Chuxing, a move almost certain to trigger a new price war.
Beijing-based Meituan, known as the Chinese Yelp for its online-to-offline business model offering services from restaurant reviews, food delivery, movie ticketing and travel bookings, is expected to launch a national expansion of its ride-hailing business after debuting the service in Nanjing city in December, according to a Meituan employee familiar with the plans who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
The employee confirmed that the company will soon launch ride-hailing services in at least five cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen in south China’s Fujian province.
“A warrior’s oath has been sworn at internal meetings,” said the source, referring to a motivational technique to spur employees to battle it out for the ride hailing market.
“Services （in several cities）are slated to kick off by the end of this month,” said the source.
Meituan declined to comment on its ride hailing expansion plans, which were reported earlier by Tencent News.
Didi, which counts tech giants Apple, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings among its biggest shareholders, has been the dominant player in China’s ride-hailing market after pushing Uber Technologies out of the country in 2016. Didi and Uber engaged in a destructive price war for dominance in China, with billions of yuan invested to buy loyalty from riders and drivers, effectively giving consumers free rides to win market share.