China’s ride-hailing market-leader Didi Kuaidi announced on Wednesday that it now has nearly 15,000 enterprise users, among whom 5,000 contribute over 100,000 orders per day.
According to the report, the enterprise users are in more than 300 cities in China and are mostly in relatively developed cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, and Chengdu.
Didi’s enterprise edition was officially launched in January 2015. It allows enterprises to open accounts and top them up so that their employees can use the service for work. The service lets the enterprise check the details of each order placed including routes, durations and fees, thus helping companies manage their transport expenses.
Since Didi’s fares are usually cheaper than taking a taxi, Didi claims to have helped smartphone-maker Huawei save over RMB one million using the service since last October. Alibaba, Lenovo, Ant Financial, and China CITIC Bank are among Didi’s enterprise users.
Unlike the usual ride-hailing service, the enterprise edition also introduced car rental service and airport pick-up service.
With Didi’s private car-hailing being its major business, Didi also has services that range from taxis and luxury cars to bus services and carpooling. Didi’s private hailing service has grabbed 83.2% of China’s market, according to Analysys International’s report last October.
Didi’s rival, Uber China, is also picking up the pace in the competition for a larger market share in China.
Also on Wednesday, Uber unveiled its new API “Ride Request Widget” that’s more immersive and works well “in areas with limited GPS coverage and bandwidth,” said Uber’s CPO Jeff Holden. The widget will be available for developers around the globe on April 11th.
In the meantime, Uber has been testing other services in China. It introduced UberCommute to Chengdu last September, which was later tested in Beijing as well. Additionally, UberHop, UberEATS and UberRUSH are being tested around the globe. A detailed schedule for their entry into China is still up in the air, a spokesperson from Uber China told AllChinaTech.
Uber first launched its API in Asia last year. The updated version would seem to be in answer to demands from Chinese developers and could be a response to Didi in this locked battle.
(Top photo from Baidu.com)