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Didi Targets Youth Market With ‘Piggy’ Ride-Hailing Service

By Ding Yi / Jul 23, 2020 12:58 PM / Business & Tech

While expanding its reach globally, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is also redoubling efforts to diversify its business domestically.

The SoftBank-backed company has launched a new standalone ride-hailing service that targets younger consumers and claims to offer more affordable rides than its main Didi app, according to a company statement on Wednesday.

The move could give Didi a boost as it aims to complete more than 100 million trips a day and achieve 800 million monthly active users globally by 2022.

The service, named Huaxiaozhu, is operated under a separate app with a logo resembling a piggy-bank on wheels. It is already being trialed in some cities in Southwest China’s Guizhou province and the eastern province of Shandong, the statement said.

It added that the app only allows existing Didi drivers to register and adopts the same security and compliance standards to ensure safe rides. Didi did not immediately respond to Caixin’s questions about the exact pricing structure of the rides.

In a separate Weibo post, Huaxiaozhu said consumers can earn discount vouchers for rides by participating in activities such as recommending the new service to other people.

The service’s launch comes a month after Didi marched into China’s already crowded on-demand logistics market with the rollout of an intra-city cargo delivery service in the cities of Chengdu and Hangzhou. That service is embedded in Didi’s China app.

In June, the Beijing-based company also started pilot operations of its “robotaxi” service in Shanghai, marking a baby step toward its goal of operating more than 1 million autonomous vehicles through its platform by 2030.

Separately, Didi has denied media reports that it’s in preparations for a listing in Hong Kong, claiming that it has no plan for an initial public offering.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Didi to March Into 20 New Australian Cities Next Month


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