Didi
Date: Jan 19, 2018
By: Steven Millward
China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, with 450 million users across mainland China,
Taipei. Photo credit: Tommy / Unsplash
today embarked on its first expansion.
With its Taiwan launch, Didi is going after Uber, which first launched on the island of 24 million people back in 2013.
But Didi is being forced to do things differently in Taiwan, where the powerful taxi lobby has prevented ride-hailing apps from tapping into ordinary people driving their own cars. Didi is partnering with a Taiwanese firm, LEDI Technology, to run the franchise on the island using only taxi drivers.
Uber was forced to ditch its ordinary drivers in Taiwan in early 2017 after it suspended operations for two months. It now uses only official limo operators. [FULL STORY]
