from Hacker News

Uber's future in China at risk?

by JohnLen on 3/20/15, 4:51 PM with 1 comments

• by kukudi1028 on 3/30/15, 3:15 AM

  From what I've seen, Uber has successfully got my friends as their users by a super low price. The price is slightly higher than the other local limo car services in China. But people think the experience from Uber is still much better. When they have time to wait for Uber, they would try Uber.

  But low price is not sustainable. Users can transfer to the other service easily if they have offer a much lower price, which is actually easier after the merger. Kuaidi-didi also have significant advantages on payments. Alipay and WeChat makes things much easier.

  Recently the government has been trying to control the "black car market". They define "black car" as the drivers who don't have a legal running taxi licence. So apparently a lot of drivers on Uber will face the risk. Uber will have to pay more to have the drivers less worried about the fine. Right now Uber is paying a lot to the drivers.

  From an answer on zhihu about "what is it like to be a Uber driver in China", I don't think the experience of becoming an Uber driver in China is that good. It requires you to watch a video on YouTube and the video is in English.