Didi Improves Pay Transparency for Drivers Following China’s State Media Accusations

Didi will continue to adjust its pricing strategy after receiving drivers' responses.

By Reuters | Updated: 16 August 2021 15:49 IST

Didi Improves Pay Transparency for Drivers Following China’s State Media Accusations

A driver of Chinese ride-hailing service Didi drives with a phone showing a navigation map on Didi's app

Highlights

Didi is backed by SoftBank, Alibaba Group, and Tencent
Didi will adjust its pricing strategy after receiving drivers' responses
Didi received more than 30 percent of what customers pay for a ride

China's Didi Global said on Monday it will provide its drivers in several Chinese cities with more details on the fees they receive, the first big move by the ride-hailing giant after state media accused it of paying drivers unfairly.

Didi said drivers in seven Chinese cities including Shenyang and Changchun will be the first to know details of how much they get and how much passengers pay for each ride through a new function it added to its app for drivers on Monday, it said in a Weibo post.

The company, which is backed by SoftBank, Alibaba Group, and Tencent Holdings, will continue to adjust its pricing strategy after receiving drivers' responses, it said.

Samsung Wins Patent for a Tri-Fold Smartphone With Specialised Barrier Layer for Improved Durability

"There are still many shortcomings with this transparent income statement that was delivered late, we will continue to improve it and work hard to expand it to other cities," it said.

In May, China's state news agency Xinhua said in an investigative report that Didi received more than 30 percent of what customers pay for a ride and criticised the policy that it described as unfair.

After the Xinhua report, Didi said in a post that drivers on average received 79.1 percent of passenger fees for rides last year and that 3.1 percent of fees went towards its profit.

Didi Global Considers Going Private to Calm China: Report

Didi is being probed by several Chinese regulators over issues such as its handling of customer data. The company went ahead with its $4.4 billion (roughly Rs. 330 crores) New York initial public offering in June despite pushback from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

© Thomson Reuters 2021

It's a John Cena double-header this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, as we discuss The Suicide Squad, and later, Fast & Furious 9 (from 28:03). Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.