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I read this article which explains the situation though
That’s the jist. A month ago before Uber stopped their service, the gov’t offered big rewards to people (900usd) who would report Uber drivers, but it didn’t mention – the penalty for those caught would be up to 2 years in prison and larger fines (up to 18 THOUSAND USD) that would well cover the cost they offer up as a reward. If China offers rewards in a similar fashion, you can bet many would jump at the chance to get a big cash reward….that’d be disastrous.
If China offers rewards in a similar fashion, you can bet many would jump at the chance to get a big cash reward….that’d be disastrous.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. That would be worst-case scenario for sure.
Uber’s head office in Chengdu was apparently raided this afternoon. Here are some photos from Chinese media:
edit: more updates. I added them to the Uber post which is here.
Yikes.
I wonder what this will mean for the consumer?
I was in an uber recently and we drove by a roadblock (going the other way) and I asked the driver what he thought they were looking for. He said probably ubers, but he wasn’t afraid because he could just delete the app if he was in one of those situations.
There is a legal service in China main cities – ‘Yi Hao Zhuan Che’ (一号专车）.
It let’s you book the car online (same like DiDi DaChe does). The minimum fee is 10 CNY but the rate per kilometer is lower.
If I use them from TongZiLin to FuLiZhongXin so I pay usually a bit less than 14 CNY while taxi is 18-19 CNY (this on their cheapest cars but last time it was Audi A6 – you may go for BMW but I see no reason to pay more for a simple drive).
They also give you some vouchers which make it to certain extent cheaper (plus they reduce 10% by topping your added cash).
But the main reason for me is not the price – the main reason is that in certain time of the day at some places it’s quite hard to get a taxi. So far I never had a trouble to get this ‘special car’.
So now I am combining taxi taken on the street with this service.
Yikes. I wonder what this will mean for the consumer?
Apparently nothing has changed since the raid yesterday. Uber is still in operation. I had a fascinating conversation with an Uber driver about it last night, about how all of the thousands of Uber drivers are in contact through QQ and are ready to organize and support Uber in case of problems.
I was in an uber recently and we drove by a roadblock (going the other way) and I asked the driver what he thought they were looking for. He said probably ubers, but he wasn’t afraid because he could just delete the app if he was in one of those situations.
Right, hahaha. That is true. I figure the way that they would nab drivers is by having undercover police pose as passengers and call drivers to pick them up.
is by having undercover police pose as passengers and call drivers to pick them up.
Yep. This.
My brother in law bought a vehicle specifically to drive uber when he’s free and it’s delivered in a week, he’s pissed. I warned him this may happen a while ago when he was arranging it, but I can see the Chinese gov’t taking steps already underway by other countries – learning from what works/doesn’t work and how to be most effective, I’d be worried if I was an uber driver. I don’t think it’ll have affect on passengers though, other than possibly being inconvenienced if your driver gets stopped/snatched up/whatever while you’re expecting to be somewhere.
Through some conversations with Uber drivers recently I have learned how committed drivers are to defending Uber in Chengdu. It’s pretty crazy, actually. They are organized through WeChat and when one of them gets busted or encounters trouble, the others spring into action. If drivers get snared by police the only evidence that can be used against them is their smartphones, so the only cases of action being taken against drivers (that I have heard of) is when police are able to stop the driver and snatch their cell phone before the driver deletes the Uber app. That’s the only evidence against them, since no cash is transacted between driver and passenger.
What I don’t understand is why people are taking a stand on Uber and not on all the other transgressions that citizens have experienced here. It is fascinating to see this all unfold, though. Yesterday coming from the East Railway Station a driver said he didn’t want to pick me up because he said it didn’t sound safe – I told him I was a foreigner and that set him at ease immediately.
I think to ‘protect’ Uber is a lost fight …
More or less everywhere taxi business is highly controlled by local administrations and requires licenses (which are usually limited in no.).
Allowing then the application like Uber, bypassing this license limitations, cannot but to distort the planning of local administration (whatever was the reason and motivation behind these plans).
It’s no wonder the local administrations will do their utmost to use all their available tools to fight this system.
That will be sooner or later also the destiny of another applications based on the same principle (unless there are another reasons behind them to keep them running but this in China most probably touches just locally developed ones).
Saying all of this I am not surprised that people who invested into cars and see a great chance to earn ‘free’ money in their spare time will fight hard. This farther emphasized by abysmal service level of local taxi drivers.
But as per my opinion they will lose their fight …
I think to ‘protect’ Uber is a lost fight
It’s totally reasonable to see how certain Uber service could be banned completely in China, as it already has been in many other places like Germany and South Korea. But the Uber drivers that I have spoken to seem very committed to ensuring that it doesn’t get eliminated here, apparently not knowing much about how Uber has been banned by legitimate governments with fairly reasonable cause (although I personally do not buy the argument that it’s for passenger safety since Uber insures everything and has a rock-solid safety record).
Honestly though, if Uber does get banned, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Chinese clone emerge immediately. This service is too valuable to passengers and drivers to not exist here in some form, whether it’s Uber or a China-based service that exists in a legal grey-area.
Yes. I would tend to agree that the reason for Uber banning is not the passengers interests but more the local administration plans protection (all over the world).
There are already the China based systems which are so far totally legal and which pretty much remind Uber system …
And just a remark – I do not think the China government is less or more legitimate than for instance German one … 😉
Yes. I would tend to agree that the reason for Uber banning is not the passengers interests but more the local administration plans protection (all over the world). There are already the China based systems which are so far totally legal and which pretty much remind Uber system … And just a remark – I do not think the China government is less or more legitimate than for instance German one …
What I mean is that Germany is an economically and socially developed country which is governed by a stable democratic process. By comparison, China is a wiry upstart which has been on a precarious rocket ship in recent decades that can build one skyscraper every 5 days but cannot even manage regulatory bodies that can produce baby formula that isn’t poisoned. Chinese people know and expect their government to do less to protect them and care for their welfare than Western countries like Germany do, but Germany still does things like ban Uber. The same can be said for South Korea, which does much, much more to ensure the welfare its citizens than China can even hope to do, but still bans Uber. However, when the P.R.C. cracks down on Uber, Chinese citizens appear to be responding with a remarkable degree of vitriol and grit.
I guess I understood what you meant – not sure than I could call China system ‘wiry upstart’ though – the system is simply different and has a lot of positive things which will, hopefully, prevent the hard landing which can be expected in EU soon (as more or less each EU state government is every year spending more than they are able to earn/collect) – but that’s a different topic …
What concerns of protecting Uber so I assume it’s not that much the ‘citizens’ as a group but rather the people who invested money into the system (bought new suitable cars) and now are simply protecting their investment. I do not see it that surprising – I find such behavior to certain extent natural.
But I think they will fail.
Why should I, as a customer, use the product which is illegal in the country when I can quite comfortably use almost identical, legal product like 一号专车…
I guess I understood what you meant – not sure than I could call China system ‘wiry upstart’ though – the system is simply different and has a lot of positive things which will, hopefully, prevent the hard landing which can be expected in EU soon (as more or less each EU state government is every year spending more than they are able to earn/collect)
China is arguably the greatest disruptor to the global hegemony that has ever existed, coming from abject poverty and climbing to the world’s #2 economy in just a few decades, with growth rates that have never been seen before. This place is absolutely madness compared to the developed West: pornography is illegal, Google is blocked. It’s highly, highly likely that Uber will be “banned” here. But perhaps, like so many other things which are banned here, its use will still be commonplace.
When something is banned in Germany, it’s really banned. When something is banned in China, it often joins a list of hundreds of other rules which are routinely ignored. Like “no smoking”, or “let people exit the train before you board”.
Why should I, as a customer, use the product which is illegal in the country when I can quite comfortably use almost identical, legal product like 一号专车…
Well, I’ve never used 一号专车, but my first thought is because the service is inferior, it being an Uber clone, and I can see from the website that it is significantly more expensive. I do not think that Chinese companies will be effective in cloning Uber because what’s really special about the product is the level of service and quality that they provide, something which Chinese companies are notoriously bad at.
I just wanted to touch on a few quick points,
- Uber is not a taxi service, imagine if I used the “People Nearby” feature on WeChat to locate someone close to me, messaged them and then used the “Share Location” feature to show them my exact location. They then chose to leave their house, get in their car and pick me up after which, I used WeChat Wallet to send them some money based on our trip distance. Is that illegal? I would imagine not, they are simply a willing volunteer and I need a ride. Uber drivers don’t work for Uber, they are provided a platform to use to give rides to people they may or more often may not know.
- Uber is VERY good at connecting people with drivers all over the world. They have a fantastic infrastructure built out and are happy to act as a middle man between my driver and I.
- I don’t even have to use 一号专车 to know it sucks and in addition to that, I can imagine they provide zero support to their drivers. Uber has vowed to pay the fines of their drivers “caught” driving “illegally” in every market they enter. I rest easy knowing that the 30,000 RMB fine levied against my driver will be promptly taken care of by Uber
- Get into an accident? My friend was in an Uber car in LA that was in an accident that wasn’t even the Uber drivers fault… Free rides for a year. Plus Uber gives a 1 million dollar insurance policy for you when you are in the car.
It looks like they might buy HERE, Nokia’s mapping platform is for sale and Uber needs it to gain autonomy from Google Maps. You may remember Apple making a similar decision with iOS 6. This will allow Uber to expand its carpooling services.
Uber is the answer to cab companies failure to evolve with a changing tech landscape. Asking why you should use Uber as opposed to waiting outside with your hand up is similar to asking why you should take a high speed train to Chongqing. I think we should shut it down because it’s taking away business from the slower train. But then again the slower train completely decimated the horse drawn wagon business so who should we blame there.
Lets just weigh the pros of taking Uber vs. a normal cab.
- I can call an Uber when its raining and not wait in the rain.
- I am alerted when it arrives.
- They don’t complain about short trips.
- They don’t try and take long trips off meter.
- I don’t have to worry about getting fake bills back from them because its cashless. In addition I don’t have to worry about the denomination of currency I pay with BECAUSE ITS CASHLESS
- It’s Cleaner, no cigarette smoke, no gum, no vomit or shit or spit or pee.
- The AC is on in the car if you want, or the heat, or the music.
- They offer water, some have wi-fi and phone chargers
- There is no 滴滴打车 noise, no printer noise, no grinding gears.
Have you ever been a taxi where they are driving like an asshole? raving the engine at stoplights for know reason? They are boosting the meter by tricking the fuel monitor into upping your bill.
Uber doesn’t benefit from taking you on a longer ride, everything is mapped with GPS and you can rate the drivers on a scale of 1-5 stars. And you if you leave a bad review you are contacted by an Uber support person the next day to resolve the situation. I have never resolved anything with anyone from any company in China.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the situation.
Eat 🍩!
一号专车gives you the option between different car levels. The lowest level (which sometimes is Audi A6 though) charges 1.3 CNY/km and 0.2 CNY for each minute of waiting. I doubt it’s ‘significantly more expensive’ than Uber but their service is certainly not inferior (by the way many of their drivers are also Uber drivers).
But I am not their agent to persuade you into using them. I anyway doubt that ‘bunch of foreigners’ can make any difference irrespective of what we think.
I am just a bit surprised that you never used them (and probably do not know anyone who did use them except of me now) but you selected not to believe what I say because you already know ‘their service is inferior’ …
By the way even Uber in here uses Chinese drivers and they provide Chinese service which you, for some strange reason, in one case consider sub par and in the other one superior (just because you probably ‘delude’ yourself that one has nothing in common with China and therefore must be superior … ).
I am not sure what will be China approach towards Uber. It can of course end up as you describe. But also does not have to. There are certain restrictions in China which are enforced with full strength.
The reason why Uber is generally banned around the world has nothing to do with passenger rights. safety or service level. It is connected with the fact that in majority of the places the taxi services are highly regulated (limited amount of licenses etc.).
In case applications like Uber get widespread so it disrupts this model. I honestly doubt any government/municipality will tolerate that on the long term unless they resign on controlling this market segment.
Why Chinese application have a bit bigger chance to survive is based on assumption that they can be incorporated into the system as China government has efficient tools to influence their policy. But of course I may be wrong.
I doubt it’s ‘significantly more expensive’ than Uber but their service is certainly not inferior (by the way many of their drivers are also Uber drivers).
Their starting price is 2x People’s Uber. It’s more expensive because it’s not being subsidized by a company that’s worth $40 billion and currently on a mission to destroy the worldwide taxi industry and replace it with something much better.
But I am not their agent to persuade you into using them. I anyway doubt that ‘bunch of foreigners’ can make any difference irrespective of what we think.
If you think that Uber’s fight for survival in China is about foreigners, you are mistaken. It is a major issue for the tens of thousands of locals drivers and passengers. There are 10x more people involved in the Uber dispute in Chengdu than there are even foreigners in Chengdu, and I imagine that only a small minority of foreigners in Chengdu are taking Uber on a regular basis anyway.
I am just a bit surprised that you never used them (and probably do not know anyone who did use them except of me now) but you selected not to believe what I say because you already know ‘their service is inferior’ … By the way even Uber in here uses Chinese drivers and they provide Chinese service which you, for some strange reason, in one case consider sub par and in the other one superior (just because you probably ‘delude’ yourself that one has nothing in common with China and therefore must be superior … ). I am not sure what will be China approach towards Uber.
I’m actually very open to trying it to compare. Here are some things I have noticed so far:
- There are zero reviews in the App Store. Looks like no one is using this app.
- I install the app, register an account, and look for a car. The nearest one is 10 minutes away. Uber is 2 minutes.
- Their app looks like an exact clone of Uber
I took an Uber yesterday and had a lengthy conversation with the driver. I mentioned 专车一号 and here is what he said: “Not many people use it. There aren’t many passengers, and there aren’t many drivers. Some of my friends registered as drivers on 专车一号 and Uber at the same time, but were approved on 专车 first, so they did that. But they couldn’t make any money because there weren’t enough passengers, so they switched to Uber and haven’t gone back.” I asked him if 专车一号 was a clone of Uber and he laughed and said “Of course” as if it were a stupid question.
I’m not saying that the opinion of a single driver is equivalent to the absolute truth on this app – I will complete registration and try it out, because I am interested in trying all the options and comparing. But saying that 专车一号 is better than Uber strikes me as saying that a CoolPad Chinese smartphone is better than an iPhone. Uber is simply the gold standard by which all other ride-sharing apps are measured, including very good American-based services like Lyft, let alone blatant Chinese copycats like 专车一号.
Very interesting discussion. I still use Uber as a preference when I can and need to. Psychologically I am already reaching for the app before even thinking about hailing a taxi these days. I’ve just loaded 一号专车 and initially not impressed by the stupid video that impedes access to the app itself – ho hum. Anyway my plan is to try it and see for myself. Right now near the office (south of Tianfu 4th street) there is nothing. However there are 6 Ubers, with the first one within two minutes, and even two black ones. I suppose if the drivers themselves dont adopt it then it will not succeed.
Assuming I can use one I will put some comments here on how it goes.
First of all I once more want to re-iterate that I really do not serve as 一号专车agent …
I would not like to change this discussion into the point who is better and who is worse.
I am not using Uber primarily because I usually do not want to break the law of the country where I am located. As China restricted using it so I see no reason for myself to go over this ban …
The reason for me to use 一号专车 is simply the convenience over the taxi service accompanied by cheaper price (against in comparison to taxi service). Not sure how many people are using this app and how many drivers – so far I had no trouble but as you rightly said – it’s just experience of one person – may not be typical.
I guess you misunderstood my statement about the ‘bunch of foreigners’ – I mentioned in my previous comment that the problem generally is just with the drivers who then take care about their Return Of Investment (ROI).
I can fully understand their behavior.
I just a bit wonder why the people should support the illegal activity in exchange for, from my perspective, relatively minor advantage if any at all.
Chinese then do not have many foreigners ‘prejudice’ over Chinese companies service level (which by the way in case of Uber and similar systems is the most probably identical anyway …).
I would be then more than wondering if Uber would successfully survive without noticeable cutting on the fees which would probably again backfire on the popularity of the application among the drivers.
But not sure – the time will show 🙂
First of all I once more want to re-iterate that I really do not serve as 一号专车agent …
I would not like to change this discussion into the point who is better and who is worse.
I am not using Uber primarily because I usually do not want to break the law of the country where I am located. As China restricted using it so I see no reason for myself to go over this ban
I hear you. It may be banned one day. But that day is not today: thousands of people are using Uber everyday. Last week I heard that there are 38,000 Uber drivers in Chengdu. So I don’t think you are really taking any kind of risk by taking Uber. Only drivers face a risk, and that risk is almost nonexistent because:
- There are tens of thousands of Uber drivers in Chengdu alone, and recently less than one person per week is “busted”, always because the driver failed to delete the Uber app before his phone was confiscated. This is the only evidence that authorities can use against Uber drivers, that I have heard. They carry no cash and otherwise have no evidence other than the Uber driver app installed on their phone
- When caught, Uber drivers are forced to pay a large fine. It is paid by Uber, not by drivers
Abiding by the laws of your host country is smart. But I’m not ready to jump to the Chinese copycat just yet. Chinese people aren’t ready to, either, evidently.
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